Peace: Nature of a Conquest
by allonsysilvertongue
Summary: Things go wrong even in a well-thought out plan. In District Thirteen, Effie struggles to balance President Coin's demands and Katniss' emotional instability while helping with the Rebellion. In prison, Haymitch tries to shield Peeta and Johanna even as his belief in Thirteen's capability to helm the Rebellion and bring the war to an end continues to dwindle with each passing day.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

In District Twelve, the darkness would have been absolute at this time of the night but not in the Capitol, and certainly not when the Third Quarter Quell was still being played in the arena. The city was draped in bright lights and once in a while, fireworks would go off.

In the streets, even at this late hour, people were out in throngs, partying and drinking, and placing bets. In houses where people elected to stay in, the televisions were switched on to watch the Games or programme fillers Caesar Flickerman had going on when the Games were slow.

In the Penthouse, Effie was busy shuffling papers and arranging them neatly into a file. They were important documents. They held sponsors' information and details of Twelve's bank account. They were doing quite well and there were still plenty of money even after Haymitch had sent out the balm to Katniss days before after the fog.

A single calloused touch on her wrist made her pause. Effie shifted her gaze to Haymitch curiously.

"You remember what I said?"

She did.

"I do," she nodded once and whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Midnight at the rooftop."

It was not an odd request. Over the years, they had on several occasion discuss certain matters at the roof top - away from Capitol bugs - but the timing of his request was indeed odd.

With Katniss and Peeta both back in the arena and given the fact that the alliance were currently putting Beetee's plan in motion, Effie could hardly believe that Haymitch wanted her to meet him at the rooftop now of all time. She would have thought that he would stay put where he was until the plan had succeed but Haymitch had been specific about the exact hour she should be up on the rooftop. Another peculiarity Effie had picked on.

Haymitch brushed his thumb over her knuckles, stole a glance at her and went back to watching the Games where Katniss had just kissed Peeta, promising to meet him at midnight just like she had promised Haymitch.

"Haymitch..." she began.

Effie swallowed, a helpless expression settling on her face. A terrible feeling swirled at the pit of her stomach at the thought of Katniss and Peeta being separated. They should stick together. She knew the people in the alliance and like Haymitch, they were all survivors. She could not say with absolute certainty that they would not use this chance to cut Katniss and Peeta out of the picture. Almost immediately, the guilt bubbled up at having entertained such ill thoughts about Finnick or Beetee or Johanna.

"Will this work? They should stick together, Haymitch. This doesn't look..."

"You're right. They should never let each other out of their sight," a muscle in his jaw twitched. "It has to work now."

Effie let out of a breath and folded her hands on her knees. Lately, Haymitch barely spoke to her, guarding something close to his heart, a heavy secret he was not willing to share with her. Not yet, he had said.

She did not begrudge him for it. Everyone had secrets but he seemed burdened by it. He was often exhausted and tired, and constantly making up excuses to be somewhere. She had seen him with Plutarch Heavensbee twice; once during the Victory Tour and the other before Finnick began to receive breads in the arena.

Effie was suspicious, naturally, but she had always trusted him, foolish as it was. He had never given her any reason not to. Haymitch was brash and definitely rude but there was a certain dignity he carried in him, a rare code of honour he swathed himself with, something Effie was sure he did not realise it himself. Haymitch had never lifted a hand to her and when he was angry to the point where his hands shook, he would throw a vase or a plate or anything within reach but never at her. He never bothered sugar coating his words. They were blunt and hurtful but they were always the truth even if she did not want to hear it. Those truths had protected her and guarded her, and she had learnt to play the Games to keep herself alive and her mask in place. Haymitch looked out for her in his own unorthodox way.

Her worst fears were realised when Johanna Mason jumped on Katniss and plunged a dagger into her arm. Katniss writhed on the floor, struggling to push Johanna away.

"Haymitch!" her voice carried a tone of warning and worry as it resonated in the empty Penthouse.

"Now."

Momentarily distracted, her gaze cut to the wall clock. Five minutes to midnight.

"But Katniss is - You have to do - "

"You're wasting time," he growled.

His lack of concern over Johanna breaking the alliance and attacking one of his charges and his insistence that she move to the room left her confused. She turned towards him ready to order him to get his act together but nothing prepared her for the grip on her arm. It was firm enough to haul her to her feet as he steered her towards the door leading up to the roof.

Effie made a soft noise of impatience. "Haymitch, what on earth – "

The sound of multiple heavy footsteps made her pause mid-sentence. They both stopped where they were. When her gaze locked with Haymitch's, his grey eyes darkened slightly to reflect his worry. Her breath hitched.

"Shh," he pressed a finger to her lips. "We're not alone."

His demeanour changed instantly but he never released his hold on her which by now had turned into a death grip, guaranteed to bruise her. Haymitch straightened to his full height, tense and edgy. With his free hand, he extricated his knife.

Effie's eyes widened at the sight of it. Were they expecting a fight? Those people were probably Avoxes, she tried to reason but he would not hear it.

"When I tell you to run, you run. You don't ask questions."

"I – I don't understand. What – "

Haymitch nudged her forward. They crept towards the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. They just needed to get to the rooftop, he said but in the state she was in she didn't think to question what was so important that they had to be at the rooftop.

There were voices speaking; men in authoritative tone giving out orders to search the Penthouse. They were coming closer. Shadows began to appear on the walls; multiple figures moving about in the Penthouse. Any second now and they would be seen.

Haymitch abandoned all efforts to be discreet. "Run!" he shoved her forward and she stumbled past the door. "Now, sweetheart!"

He was scaring her but Effie righted herself and forced her feet to move, one step in front of the other. She was halfway up the small flight of stairs that would take her to the rooftop when a hovercraft descended, startling her.

"Go!" Haymitch urged. "Run, Effs! I'm right behind you."

"Haymitch Abernathy!" a voice boomed, though it was nearly drowned by the droning of the hovercraft's engine. "Don't move - you are under arrest."

Effie turned at the sound of his name. Haymitch was in full view of the intruders but she was partially hidden. They had not seen her yet. She took another careful step up on the stairs to hide herself.

"Get to the fucking rooftop," he hissed.

When Haymitch fell and hit the ground with a loud sickening crunch, her mouth opened in a silent scream. He was twitching and convulsing. His fist curled and uncurled as he tried to control the pain from the taser.

From the reflection on the glass door separating the roof top from the Penthouse, she saw the reflection of men shrouded in the familiar white uniforms of a Peacekeeper approaching him with their guns raised.

"Haymitch," she whispered hoarsely. "Please, get up!"

It was useless and she knew it, too. His muscles were paralysed and he wouldn't be getting up without anyone's help. His face was scrunched in pain

"Miss Trinket!" someone called out urgently for her.

She turned to see Plutarch Heavensbee at the hovercraft, his hair flying wildly about him. He mouthed something, and gestured wildly for her to come over. Effie ignored him. She couldn't leave Haymitch behind. She couldn't.

"You need to come now or they will get you, too!" he shouted to be heard.

"I can't!"

"He wants you in this hovercraft and you will do as he asked," Plutarch ordered. "You have twenty seconds, Miss Trinket! We need you onboard."

Effie hesitated.

"Now, please! We have to hurry!"

 _You run. Don't ask questions._

"I'm sorry," she whispered and turned tail, running towards the waiting hovercraft.

The hovercraft was hovering a few inches away from the roof and if it wasn't for the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she would be paralysed with fear to even do it but she jumped off the rooftop and into the waiting hovercraft.

"I got you," Plutarch panted, pulling her in.

The first thing she did was to call him out on it out of sheer terror. "You couldn't have just landed on the rooftop?"

"It will take far too much time to take off. It will be easier this - "

"Haymitch," she gasped, not wanting to hear about anything else anymore. Her mind was a jumble mess. "I shouldn't have … I shouldn't have left him. What have I done?"

Effie did not realise that she was crying until she felt something salty in her mouth. She raised a hand to her cheeks. Plutarch handed her a handkerchief and she turned away from him, not wanting to see the Head Gamemaker's look of pity.

She caught sight of the small window and hurried over to see the Training Centre slowly vanishing behind them.

"No!" she pressed herself against the window. "You have to turn around. He's still there. He's still there and we need to help him!"

"We are running on a schedule, Miss Trinket. Haymitch is lost to us now. There is – "

Perhaps it was the flippant way he said it without any due regard for her or perhaps the idea that Haymitch was lost to her that spurred her to launch at Plutarch without restrain. Her long nails scratched against his arm.

"He's not lost," she raised her voice and pounded her fist on his chest, not at all caring that it was rude of her to do that. "Haymitch is at the Penthouse! You just have to turn back for him!"

"He would not have wanted us to go back for him," he grabbed her wrist and held it away from him. "I'm sorry, Miss Trinket, but Haymitch knew the risks of this operation."

The fight left her and she staggered back from him, looking lost and dejected.

"What operation?" she asked. "What is truly happening here? Haymitch would say nothing to me and he would not tell me anything. But I am not so clueless, Mr. Heavensbee. I noticed things. I noticed the way he behaved…"

Steering her away from the window towards one of the room in the hovercraft, Plutarch began to talk.

"Haymitch could not divulge any of the plans to you. It was for your own safety in case you were brought in for questioning. We needed to be careful and to take precautions. This part right here- ," he rubbed his temple tiredly, "- this is his job. He was to be the one to tell you everything and explain to you your role in District Thirteen."

"District Thirteen?" she repeated, feeling incredibly lost. She hated repeating things that way. It made her feel stupid.

The look of alarm on her face made Plutarch sigh.

"The Rebellion, Miss Trinket, you are a part of it now."

* * *

 _I'm rather nervous about posting this story but I wanted to explore the 'what ifs' should plans go wrong or if Effie's and Haymitch's position were reversed, how would it impact them and others. So let me know what you think of it! if you like the premise of this story? hate it? Please leave a review and thanks for reading._

 _As with Raptors, I will try to post this every Sunday._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

All that had separated him from being captured was an outstretched hand.

If he had stretched out his hand, Effie would have taken it without a doubt and she would have pulled him as she ran for the hovercraft but he hadn't. Afterwards it was too late to run and too late to fight. The image of Effie running towards the hovercraft was seared into his mind. At least she was safe. At least she had gotten out.

He supposed it was a good thing he hadn't tried to reach out for her because that would have given her away to the Peacekeepers and he would have gotten her killed for it. They would assume that she knew something or that she was in on the plan. They would assume she was a rebel because the truth was that he had unwittingly made her an accomplice to his crimes when he told her to head to the rooftop.

It was better for one of them to escape then for both of them to be captured. Katniss and Peeta would have her at least. Effie was the only person he trusted to look after the interest of those two kids. Plutarch and Coin would use them to their own advantage but if he was there, he could control it except he wasn't. Now, he could only hope that when the time comes, Effie would know what to do.

His knees buckled and he stumbled forward. The grip on his arms prevented him from falling.

"If you try to escape, we'll put a bullet in your knee cap."

Haymitch grunted loudly. He wasn't foolish enough to think that he could escape and get away with it. His legs were not cooperating with him, the after effect of the Taser. He had been cuffed and his hands were bound behind his back.

His eyes darted wildly around him, making notes and marking signs if he ever needed it one day. He was dragged down the corridor with the Peacekeepers taunting and chuckling among themselves as if they knew something that he wasn't privy to. He supposed that was true.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked.

"Someplace where we can give you a real treat. You're going to want to see it, Abernathy," one of them sneered.

He knew where they were the moment he stepped into the room - the Gamemaker's Control Room. He craned his neck, looking at the screens for a glimpse of the arena. He needed to know what had happened between the time that he tried to make his escape to now.

"Game's over, Abernathy," his captor laughed, "but if you want to see the arena so badly, we'll show it to you but first..."

He was pushed into a chair. They removed the cuffs only to shackle his hands on to the arms of the chair. With a gun pressed against his temple, he sat facing a large screen.

The arena came into view; broken beams and scaffolds that no longer support the structure of the arena. Several Capitol hovercrafts flew over area, scanning and tracking for remaining tributes.

His breath caught and his chest constricted. He had no idea what he was about to see. It could be the end of everything if Plutarch failed to get their people out as planned.

Should any of them fall into the hands of the Capitol...

If Katniss and Peeta were captured, there would not be a Rebellion but right now, the Rebellion or Thirteen's need for a symbol was the furthest thing from his mind.

Their safety was paramount to him; them falling into Capitol's hands would just be another mark to add to his list of people he had failed in his lifetime. The Capitol would do terrible things to them, and those two kids knew nothing. They have no information to offer. Their torture would be pointless and it would only serve to satisfy Snow knowing that he had won. Again.

The time at the bottom corner of the screen show that it was twenty minutes past midnight. Plutarch's hovercraft would be long gone by now.

The image of Johanna Mason's limp body filled the screen as she was extracted from the arena and loaded into one of the Capitol's hovercraft. Haymitch glanced at one of his captors, a tall lanky man with a malicious grin. He seemed to be leading the breaking and entering into the Penthouse earlier so Haymitch assumed he was in-charge.

"I'm as surprised as you are, Abernathy," he said, "didn't know the damn arena blew up. How'd you do it, huh?"

"You let us," Haymitch taunted, referring to the tree and the lightning in the arena but that only earned him a blow from the butt of the gun to the back of his head. They clearly did not like the implication that they had been fooled.

Haymitch clenched his jaws to stop himself from crying out in pain. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction. On screen, Enobaria was extracted next.

For a moment, Haymitch dared to breathe a sigh of relief - not that he cared less about Johanna but she knew the plan and therefore, the risk it entailed so she would know not to give up information - until he saw a familiar blond head.

His reaction was instantaneous, spurred by a blinding flash of panic. "No!" Haymitch jerked forward. The metal chains from the cuffs rattled loudly against the chair.

"Alpha to Command," a voice crackled over the intercom. "We got Peeta Mellark. Prepare the Pod for transfer of highly valuable subject."

The use of the word 'subject' should have raised red flags but Haymitch was too shocked and too preoccupied with Peeta being captured for him to analyse about what it could mean.

Static filled the screen.

"How about another one, Abernathy?" the taunt came immediately after. "You'll love this one, too. President Snow ordered it ten minutes ago for your insolence against the Capitol and he would like it if you could watch it with him. Of course, he's not here - he'll be watching from his suite - but you get the idea."

The Peacekeeper motioned to his subordinate. A switched was flipped on and another screen came to life.

The images were captured from above but Haymitch recognised what he was seeing in a heartbeat. He had a clear bird eyes' view of District Twelve engulfed in flames.

"What are you doing?!" he screamed, pulling on his restrains. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"What does it seem like?" he laughed. "We're burning your damn district to the ground."

Haymitch lost it. His feet were not bound so he stood up with the chair still attached to him. Putting his whole weight into the move, he rammed the Peacekeeper with his shoulder. The others pulled him back immediately and one punched him in the face. He collapsed sideways on the ground, panting heavily only to be righted up again.

The Peacekeeper sneered at him but his hand was on his ribcage and he was masking the pain from Haymitch's attack.

 _Fox,_ Haymitch remembered suddenly. That was the Peacekeeper's name.

"You will pay for that. Not here and not now, but it will come," Fox wheezed.

"This is a massacre. You're fucking killing _my_ people," Haymitch bellowed. "There are children… There are old people…"

"Yes, yes," Fox chortled, "and they're going to die because of _you_ … Because of Katniss Everdeen… Didn't think of that before you and your little friends blew up the arena and tried to get the tributes out of there, huh?"

The view panned out and Haymitch saw the entire town eaten by flaming orang fire. The Justice Building, the Town Square, the bakery that belonged to Peeta's family, the Mayor's house… They were all gone.

He saw his people running in the streets; screaming and crying, tearing their burning clothes away from their body. He saw children with their skin peeling off and melting. He saw buildings collapsing on people trying to escape from the fire. They were trapped and they would burn.

"Please, have some mercy on them," the words spilled from his lips.

He couldn't remember begging the Capitol for anything since his family was killed but he would do so now for those people in Twelve. If begging could make the Capitol end this madness and save the lives of those who remained in Twelve, then he would do it.

Haymitch wanted so much to shut his eyes. He wanted so much not to watch anymore of this but this was his fault. He had brought this destruction and this death on his own district so his eyes remained fixated to it; a small punishment he inflicted upon himself.

"You know," Fox started, "I thought it might be better with sounds. That way, we can hear them scream as they burn but my colleagues down in Twelve are not in possession of that many fancy equipment."

His entire body was shaking with rage. The cuffs cut into the skin of his wrists as he fisted his hands to control himself but Fox chose that moment to come around, stooping down slightly so they were eye to eye.

"Fuck you," Haymitch spat in his face. Without warning, Haymitch reared his head back and knocked it hard on Fox's face.

Haymitch smirked when he saw the blood flowing from the man's nose.

XxX

He passed out after being hit on his head with the barrel of gun.

When he came to, every muscle in his body was aching. Wherever he was, it was dark and cold, or maybe, _he_ was cold. He wasn't sure.

His hands shook from the tremors. The electroshock from the Taser had still not worn off after all those time that had passed between being shot, watching his district burn and waking up in a place that smelt horrid.

He forced himself to stand only to sit back down. His head was pounding and his heart was ramming wildly in his chest. Was it from fear or was it from the lack of alcohol running through his system? He didn't know and because he couldn't tell the time, he had no idea when was the last time he had something to drink.

He felt it too. His throat was parched but there were more pressing matters on hand. He needed to figure out his surroundings. He fell around the floor in an attempt to gauge the beginning and the end of this place he was in. His fingers brushed against cold metal and he gripped it tight, hauling himself up. His mind began to form a mental picture.

 _Prison._

"Hey!" he shouted. "Anyone there?"

"Shut the fuck up, Haymitch," a bored voice drawled.

A loud snort escaped from him. "Johanna Mason," he said, the relief bled through her name.

"Yeah - glad to know you're not dead. I saw them dragging you passed my cell - thought you were a goner."

"You've any idea where we are? You saw anythin' when they brought you in?"

"Wherever this is, it's underground. They call this the Pod. I think they like their prisons to have some fucking fancy name or whatever, and I'm fucking surprised this place didn't come up during one of our illegal _meetings_. You'd think Plutarch would have eyes on the Pod. Some kind of spy he was."

"Peeta," his eyes widened, now that he was reminded of the boy. "I heard something 'bout bringing Peeta here."

"Haven't seen him."

"Katniss... Did Katniss - "

"Your damn girl on fire got out and a good thing, too, or what I've done would be for nothing," Johanna told him through the bars of their cell. "I saw the hovercraft picked her up - _our_ hovercraft."

He closed his eyes. That was the first good news he heard since everything went down.

"Good," Haymitch whispered. "Effie got out, too, and I didn't see the Capitol picking up Finnick and Beetee."

"They were with Katniss. If Plutarch got Katniss, he must have gotten them out, too. I'll tell you what's not good – Annie's here with me."

His eyes flew open at that unexpected piece of information.

"Shit."

"Yeah, shit's right," she laughed cruelly. "That's a confirmation that Finnick's out at least. If they got Finnick, they wouldn't have bothered with Annie. Isn't that right, Annie?"

"Leave her alone, Johanna."

"She should have been extracted, Haymitch," Johanna's voice rose. " _That_ was the plan - extract her and take her to Thirteen. Finnick's going to be a downright fucking mess," she scoffed, lowering her tone back to a whisper. "Your girl, too, once she finds out Peeta's at the Capitol. You say she won't cooperate without him."

He had said that. He had told all the tributes that were in on the plan that they both have to make it. Whatever the cost, both Katniss and Peeta had to leave the arena alive for Thirteen. He had made a promise to those kids that he would get them out and he didn't make promises if he didn't plan on seeing it through.

"What a fucking Rebellion with two messed up victors. Yeah, we're going to win this one, alright."

"Shut up, Jo," he snapped, breathing heavily. His mind was turning the problem they were facing because Johanna was right. The knowledge that the Capitol had Peeta and Annie would break Katniss and Finnick even more. "Just shut up."

 _Katniss,_ he pressed the heels of his hands on his eyes.

The girl didn't see it yet and she hadn't realised how much she needed Peeta. Haymitch could not rely on her to realise her feelings because nobody knew how long that would take but what he could count on was Katniss' desperation to get Peeta out of the arena alive at the cost of her own. If she still had that same desperation, she would do all it would take to get him out of the Capitol. He just hope that she wouldn't be too blind to see that to get Peeta, she would need Thirteen and the only way Thirteen would help her would be for her to cooperate.

"She will know what to do," Haymitch said. "She'll cooperate if it means getting Peeta back. We haven't lost yet, Jo."

Johanna snorted. "Yeah, sure."

The dense silence enveloped them.

"How's Annie doing?" he asked.

"As well as can be expected. Hey, Annie, Haymitch is here, did I tell you?"

He heard her whimper by way of an answer.

"You hang in there, Annie. Just…. hang in there," he told her. "If Peeta's here - Coin will likely send a rescue team - Katniss needs Peeta and Coin needs Katniss - if they get Peeta out, they'll get you out too, for Finnick."

"And where does that leave you and me, Haymitch?" Johanna chuckled bitterly. "Who are they going to get us out for?"

* * *

 _Haymitch's difficulties are only just beginning. He just watched his district incinerated. Peeta is not in the cell with him or Johanna yet. He's got no access to alcohol and he doesn't know how Katniss will react to not having Peeta in Thirteen. How do you think he will cope?_

 _At some point, I realised, that the pace of this story might be a little slow because it will keep switching point of view for each chapter - Effie in the Thirteen and Haymitch in the Capitol - but I hope you'll have the patience to stick around and read!_


	3. Chapter 3

_A long chapter ahead! Have fun reading :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Plutarch had informed her, rather reluctantly, that they were trying to avoid detection by flying in circles and taking detours.

District Thirteen was still a good few hours away. They would have reached otherwise.

Effie was feeling miserable as the seconds ticked away; afraid, worried and very troubled.

Losing Haymitch had been a blow not only to Effie who felt his lost so keenly but also to Plutarch though for an entirely different reason. He needed Haymitch for his value to the Rebellion; for his mind, for his strategies and for his ability to control and communicate rebel plans to Katniss.

Effie, on the other hand, needed Haymitch because she wouldn't be here without him and because Haymitch meant _something_ to her. He was her colleague, her friend and to others in her situation, they would call him her lover though she didn't dare to think of him as such but whatever they were, she cared deeply about him.

An hour ago, they lost both Peeta and Johanna to the Capitol.

Effie had thrown the bottled water she was holding at Plutarch's head when he ordered for their hovercraft to turn around, leaving Peeta and Johanna behind. Her eyes had strayed to Katniss' unconscious form. She wasn't sure how to break it to her.

Johanna carried valuable rebel information. Haymitch held rebel plans and the knowledge of how Katniss would fit into all those plans, which was no surprise that Plutarch was in a state. He was constantly worrying about the two of them being tortured for information which did not help to calm Effie's nerves at all. It grew worse when a careless _'they will use Peeta to get to the girl – nothing more'_ passed his lips.

That earned a slap from Effie. Truly, Effie was surprised by the number of violent acts she had committed against Plutarch within the space of less than two hours. She prided herself by being someone in control but Plutarch had a way of frying her nerves.

"They are not your puppets! I have watched over these children, Mr. Heavensbee, and if they are merely a means to an end for you then you tell me right this instance so I can be honest about this to Katniss. She needs to know who she is dealing with," Effie hissed.

"Can you see why Haymitch likes her?" Finnick managed a grin. It was the first time he had spoken since he was rescued.

Finnick's arm was wrapped in a tight bandage. He had driven a knife into the flesh of his arm the moment he was hauled on board to pry the tracking chip out. Effie had nearly lost the contents of her stomach at the sight of it but she gathered herself together and hurried to press a cloth to the wound to stem the blood flow before sending him to the makeshift infirmary.

"We can't do this without Johanna and Haymitch," Finnick pointed out weakly from his spot.

"We have no choice on the matter," Plutarch told him. "Thirteen's order is for us to keep moving forward. They are expecting us."

"Peeta's left behind. Haymitch was very clear about it. We put our lives on the line in the arena so that those two will live and you're going to just ignore the fact that Peeta's …" he trailed off. "We risked our lives for this."

That caught Effie's attention. She stared at Finnick without comprehension before the pieces began to fall in place. That would explain all the oddities in this year's Games; Finnick resuscitating Peeta, Mags' sacrifice, the morphling from District 6…

"We cannot mount a rescue attempt on our own. It will be disastrous for us," Plutarch countered. "We have Katniss. She is important to our mission and we cannot risk going back and having her captured. Our best course of action is to get to District Thirteen where we can then put a plan in motion with the backup of their military."

Effie crossed her arms as she listened to the conversation. She did not like it one bit. The longer rescue was put off, the more difficult it would be to get them out and the more danger they would all be in.

"You only saw it through a screen, Plutarch. You weren't there when Peeta's heart stopped beating. You saw the panic in her eyes but you didn't feel her terror when she thought she lost him. When Katniss finds out, she's going to lose it and there's no guarantee that she'll cooperate. The whole Rebellion is hinging on her," Finnick continued to argue.

"Finnick's right," Effie added in a quieter tone. "Peeta is important to – "

"Effie?"

The doors slid open to reveal Katniss standing there with a syringe gripped tight in one hand. She looked murderous but the shock at seeing Effie there was also plain to see.

"What are you doing with them?"

Effie was quick to rise from her seat. She hurried forward and pulled Katniss into a hug. She had hugged Katniss multiple times before and the girl would always return those hugs but not today. She stood stiffly in Effie's embrace.

"Katniss! Oh, Katniss, I am so very glad that you're awake. How are you feeling? Are you in pain?" she released the girl and began to fuss.

Katniss paid her no attention. She was staring wildly at Plutarch and Finnick, trying to figure out and understand what a tribute, a Gamemaker and an escort was doing together in the same room, having a conversation. Nothing made sense and Effie could see Katniss' blazing eyes as her stance change, ready for an attack.

Still, she remained where she was. There was someone else she was searching for.

"Where's Peeta?" she demanded.

"Katniss – " Effie began, tossing Finnick a helpless glance.

"Where is Peeta?"

Before Effie could say something to soothe the girl and calm her down, Plutarch beat her to it.

"Katniss, you've been our mission from the beginning," Plutarch informed her. "The plan was to always get you out."

Effie let out a breath and pinched her lips into a line. Finnick hung his head. There should have been another way to break it to her and Plutarch Heavensbee was doing it wrong. The man had no tact and his approach would only make things worse.

His next sentence caused Effie to shut her eyes in dismay.

"Half the tributes are in on it. This is the revolution and you're the Mockingjay. We're on our way to District Thirteen right now."

Effie didn't know what Plutarch was expecting by unloading on Katniss something as big as that. Was he expecting Katniss to jump at the chance, ready to fight?

"Thirteen?" Katniss frowned, exhibiting the same sort of confusion Effie had shown earlier though Thirteen didn't hold Katniss' attention for long. "Where's Peeta?"

"In the Capitol," Finnick met Katniss' gaze from across the room. "They got him and Johanna."

Katniss' face morphed. She raised the syringe slightly and took a threatening step forward.

"Where's Haymitch?" she asked. "Where's Haymitch?! He promised me. He promised he'll get Peeta out over me! He promised!"

"Katniss, please," Effie tried to placate and calm the girl.

"Where is he?"

"He's in the Capitol," Effie broke the news to her. "Haymitch was taken as well."

That news startled Katniss. She stared at Effie.

"He's gone, too?"

"Yes," Effie whispered. "I couldn't get him out. I couldn't."

XxX

Katniss had to be sedated.

Effie couldn't stand to spend another minute in Plutarch's presence so she kept close to Katniss, keeping vigil next to her. She stroked Katniss' bruised knuckles gently and watched the girl. Once in a while, she would twitch in her sleep or mumble something incoherent, and Effie would brush her hair back, whispering comforting words to her. She didn't know if she was doing it right but she hoped it would help soothe Katniss a little.

On the second hour, Finnick entered the room, checked on Beetee and dropped on to the empty chair next to Effie.

"You should be resting."

"I can't. They have Annie now," Finnick told her. "I've just been informed. She wasn't retrieved in time like she was supposed to. They got to her first."

Effie turned her head and took in his dejected appearance.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Finnick nodded. He pushed the sleeve of his shirt up and something glinted under the light.

"I'm sorry too, about Haymitch," he muttered softly as he slipped the gold bangle from his wrist. Finnick took her hand and placed it gently on her palm. "He told me you bought it for him, something for the team."

"I did," Effie blinked, staring the piece of jewellery. She remembered the way Haymitch had run his thumb over its smooth surface as he plucked it out from the box when she had presented it to him. "He should be here and not me. He would know what to do. I don't know why he brought me to -"

"He wanted you here. He fought to get you here," Finnick admitted.

Effie raised her head and fixed Finnick with a look.

"He did," Finnick insisted. "Plutarch told him you'll be safer in the Capitol, that no one would harm you. You're not a rebel. You're not a part of this. You'll be safe, theoretically speaking. But Haymitch… He said he's not taking any chances. Snow will go after you for your connection to Twelve. He insisted that it was too risky to leave you exposed in the Capitol without protection."

 _Protection…._

"Plutarch couldn't afford any men to protect you around the clock so… Haymitch said you'll be better off with us."

He was trying to protect her and what did she do? She left him behind. She ran without turning back when he told her to. She shouldn't have listened. She should have tried…

"Katniss and Peeta needed me – that was how Plutarch explained my presence here. He didn't say anything about -"

"That is also true," Finnick nodded. "But Haymitch also wanted you keep you safe – I think that was his motivation but you know him… He won't say it. I guess you crept under his skin the way Annie did with me," he managed a small grin but this one failed to light up his eyes as it usually did. "I'm glad you're here, Effie. I think I might need you too, if you have time for me. I know your main concern is Katniss but ..."

"You don't have to ask. We are friends, are we not?" she smile affectionately at him and patted his knee.

Finnick was a good friend to her and to Haymitch, and she was glad he was here. She needed a friend as much as Finnick.

"Do you think they'll be okay? I worry about Annie and what they will do to her. She will be so frightened…"

Finnick closed up just then, the thought proving too much for him to bear. He stared at the walls, his gaze burning.

"If I were the kind of woman to bet, Finnick, I would not place my bet on this, knowing President Snow as we do. Cinna was killed."

They remained quiet, not speaking a word to each other but neither wanting to be alone. It wasn't long before a shadow fell across the hovercraft which darkened the room they were in.

They were descending.

Finnick stood up and went over to the window before glancing over his shoulder and gave Effie a wry smile, "Welcome to District Thirteen."

XxX

During their journey to District Thirteen, Effie had tried to imagine the district. She had been told it was underground and governed by a female president with high military influence. Refugees like herself - Plutarch informed her that they were all now political refugees - would be granted automatic citizenship into District Thirteen. Effie did not have much time to dwell too much on the fact that just two hours before she had been a Capitol citizen and now she was not.

The moment she stepped off the hovercraft, she could not control the shudder that ran down her spine. Effie did not feel welcome; there was a sense of foreboding and the aura was cold. It made her skin prickled.

Everywhere she turned, there were eyes on them... On _her_. Effie became self-conscious but she held her chins up. She was well-aware of the loud clicking of her heels as she walked behind Plutarch but she spied on the citizens of Thirteen just as they were spying on her.

She noticed the grey.

It was everywhere; on their uniform, the walls, the floor and much to her horror, the President's hair. Effie wrinkled her nose at such a simple, basic and generally terrible hairstyle.

There was something about the woman that did not sit right with Effie.

She did not like her. That much she could tell. It was instinctive. She thought perhaps it had to do with the hair and the bad fashion choice. After all, there was an old saying that one should never judge a book by its cover but that saying generally held little meaning in the Capitol. She learnt that the first ten seconds during a first meeting were crucial and could even make a lasting impression. People in the Capitol were _always_ judging others by what they see and what Effie was seeing now was an authoritative woman.

So, no, Effie figured, she did not like Alma Coin not just because of her appearance but the way she was studying her. There was a dangerous glint in the President's eyes; cold and calculating. Effie did not trust her. She definitely would not trust her to keep Katniss safe once Katniss no longer serve a purpose.

The President's attention shifted to Katniss as she was wheeled out of the hovercraft together with Beetee by Thirteen's medic. Both of them were still unconscious. Effie felt something roar inside of her; a need to protect.

"Where will she be taken?" Effie asked, taking a step towards Katniss.

By then, President Coin and Plutarch were already engaged in a conversation and broke away from the group to brief each other on the status of the Rebellion, leaving Effie and Finnick alone.

"To the hospital wing for her injuries," one of the medics answered. "Do you have any injuries that need to be examined and tended? If so, you may follow me. If not, please report over there," he jutted his chin to somewhere over Effie's shoulder, "and you will be briefed on the necessary, for your induction into this district."

"Induction..." Effie repeated. It sounded ridiculous. :Never mind that - I should go with her. She's my - "

"Do you have injuries, m'am?"

"No, no, I am fine," Effie insisted and tried to follow but another soldier had already approached them.

"I will keep an eye on her," Finnick spoke with a low voice. He squeezed Effie's hand gently. "Visit us when you have settled."

"I will. As soon as I can, I will be there."

Effie did not know what she was expecting. Not an apartment certainly, but not a compartment either.

It sounded barbaric to her ears when she imagined a conversation involving where she lived. " _Where do you live?" "Oh, in a compartment."_ She was glad she was alone in her room because she actually tested saying _'I live in a compartment'_ out loud. People would think she was mad for talking to herself.

There was another atrocity to add to her list. She was informed that she would not be having this room to herself for long. She was not looking forward to having to share.

It turned out the horrors of being in District Thirteen did not just stop at living in compartments and having to share rooms. There were others.

Naturally, she had worried about her change of clothes. Haymitch had not given her time to pack but that worry was quickly replaced by something else altogether. Effie nearly had a fit when she came to know that she, like everybody else she saw, had to put on Thirteen's grey uniform. She adamantly refused and was still in the couture dress she left the Capitol when Plutarch walked in, dressed in grey and looking just like another resident in Thirteen.

 _He's fitting in fast,_ Effie huffed. She wasn't impressed.

"Miss Trinket," Plutarch greeted and gestured to a chair, "May I?"

Effie nodded in assent. He took a seat at the only empty chair in the room while Effie remained standing. He may be in Thirteen but his Capitol upbringing was still ingrained in him and seeing Effie standing, Plutarch stood up.

"You haven't change," Plutarch noted.

"It is hideous. No matter, I'm sure you are not here to check on me."

"Perhaps that's exactly why I'm here, Miss Trinket. I know it is hard on you especially so without Haymitch but I would like you to know that – "

"Mr. Heavensbee –"

"Plutarch," he interrupted her. "We will be working closely together from now. You may call me Plutarch."

"Very well, _Plutarch._ I am glad that you are here. It saves me the trouble of navigating through this place in search of you. There is something I have been meaning to talk to you; something I have been thinking about since we landed."

Plutarch waited for Effie to continue, tapping his index finger rhythmically against the table.

"It occurred to me that we should inform Katniss' family that she is safe and that she is here in District Thirteen. It is only proper. Her mother and sister will worry. It will be better if you can fly them here. Katniss will want them with her, no doubt," Effie insisted. "Peeta's family ought to be informed that he -

Plutarch sighed. "Actually, that is the reason I am here. District Twelve was bombed and burnt to the ground minutes after we flew off from the Capitol," he told her bluntly. "Technically speaking, as of now, there is no District Twelve."

The pair of heavy, grey military boots she had been inspecting when Plutarch came slipped her from grasp and dropped to the floor.

"There are survivors – not many, probably a quarter of Twelve's total population. The authorities in District Thirteen have given an order and will be providing military aid to extract the refugees and get them here."

"Are Katniss' and Peeta's family…"

"As of now, there are no confirmations as to whether either of their family survived the bombing."

Effie took a step back and then another until her knees hit the bed frame. She sat down on it, staring at her hands in shock and trying to comprehend the news.

"We can't tell her that," Effie kept shaking her head. "We can't tell Katniss that, not yet. It is too much for her."

"I understand that you are trying to protect her – "

"Haymitch has been trying to protect her since the 74th Games… He's not here," she threw him a look, a silent accusation at him for not going back for Haymitch, "but I am."

"Aerial report shows heavy bombing around the town area. I understand that that is where Peeta's from…" Plutarch continued. "It will be safe to assume that Peeta's family is dead. I'd like to think that there is still hope for Katniss' family. These are military property," he handed her an envelope. "I trust you will not disclose it to anyone else. Return it to me at once after you are done perusing it."

"Why are you showing this to me?"

"So that you will be prepared for when Katniss wakes up. If her mother and sister did not survive, you will be among the few familiar faces she will have here and I will leave the decision as to whether or not she should know about her family's fate up to you but we _need_ her to function. It is your call, Effie."

 _Her call_ … How could she be expected to make that kind of decision?

Plutarch Heavensbee, Effie decided, was an asshole.

Haymitch would snicker if he could hear her thoughts, and he would laugh at her choice of language. She missed him.

But above all, Haymitch would know what to do.

* * *

 _Effie is beginning to feel the heat. She's struggling to fit in District Thirteen and she has both Katniss and Finnick depending on her. How do you think Effie will fare since it's only going to get worse? Leave me a review and share your thoughts!_

 _A/N: There will not be an update next week as I'm going on vacation to Indonesia, so the next update will be after MJ2 is released! So excited for the movie :)) Anyway, in the next chapter, we'll see Haymitch being... tortured and confronted by Peeta._


	4. Chapter 4

_You get an update in the middle of the week because with MJ2 coming out tomorrow, I think the fandom will be in a state and if i were to post this on the Sunday, it might just get drown in the tag!_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

There was not much by way of entertainment in prison which meant, more often than not, the prisoners became the source of entertainment for the guards.

They certainly found Haymitch's withdrawal amusing. They mocked him. They taunted him. They laughed in his face when he called out the names of those who died.

Twice, Haymitch had gone into shock and twice they had resuscitated him because they cannot afford for him to die on them. On the second occasion when he was brought back, Peeta's face swam into his field of vision.

Haymitch reached out to clasp the boy's upper arm, rasping, "you're alive… you're okay."

"You're not," said Peeta. "You listen to me, Haymitch, you don't die on me, understand? You don't die on me because I'm angry with you."

Haymitch chuckled weakly. He wasn't going to make those promises to the boy because frankly, he thought death wouldn't be so bad compared to the withdrawals. The physiological impact the withdrawal had on his body was terrible on its own without having to add his delusions and hallucinations into it.

He saw his mother and his brother, and was helpless to do anything to save them. He saw the tributes he mentored and gave up hope on over the years. He saw the two kids; Katniss blamed him for everything as did Peeta, and he watched them burn in Twelve. He saw Peeta went up in flames in his parent's bakery and Katniss, in the wedding dress Cinna designed for her, rolling on the floor with her gown on fire. Effie haunted him, too. She was captured and thrown into the same cell as him. He could only stand there enduring her abuse as she blamed him for dragging her with him. Annie and Johanna were dead and deep down he knew it was because of him.

He couldn't tell if they were real, a figment of his imagination or his nightmares haunting him.

"It's not real, Haymitch," Peeta shook him roughly one day when he screamed himself hoarse. "It's not real!"

Next to their cell, Johanna was verbally abusing the guards with all the colourful language District Seven had to offer. "You're going to fucking kill him, brainless! Then what use will he be to you? Get him to the fucking hospital, you fat fuck!"

It only made them snicker. "He already died twice. We handled it. Don't get your panties in a twist, doll face," one of them sneered.

Johanna spat at him.

One day, the hallucinations and the delusions stopped. The ghosts of dead people and of the people he thought he failed stopped appearing like wisp of smokes in front of him. Haymitch drifted in and out of consciousness, his body weakened by the withdrawals

"Peeta," Johanna called out. "I haven't heard from him. He dead?"

Peeta jostled him lightly and Haymitch stirred.

"Not dead yet," Haymitch forced the word out.

"He's a survivor, this one," Peeta laughed lightly.

"Don't leave us," Haymitch heard Annie's soft pleas through the cell. "Finnick told me a lot about you."

Peeta watched him like a hawk until he was sure the worst of the withdrawal had passed. Still, exhausted, Haymitch remained slumped against the grimy wall, forced to watch Peeta pace back and forth. It made him giddy and nausea but he let him be.

Haymitch took in the sight of his young charge. Peeta seemed untouched. He didn't seem to be in pain. Perhaps the questionings had yet to start or perhaps… they wanted Peeta for something else.

"How long have we been here?"

"I don't know," Peeta stopped pacing to answer the question. "A few weeks? A month? How are you feeling?"

"I'm desperate enough to distil those potatoes," Haymitch admitted, nodding at the tray of food the guards provided them once a day.

"Don't. You've been through the worst of it and you've made it out alive. No point going back," Peeta told him as if it was that easy.

Haymitch learnt that one grew bored quickly in prison and like the guards, every noise, sound or sight became something of interest to fill his time. He listened to Annie's whimpering next door. He listened to Johanna muttering darkly under her breath. He listened to Peeta calling out for Katniss in his sleep at night. He listened to the guards as they walked down the corridor, counting down the average steps it would take them to get to his cells. He counted seventeen steps in total to the exit which he translated to mean seventeen steps to a possible escape route. He longed for the sun because the single overhead lamp in the cell, which the guards sometimes refused to turn on, was not enough to chase the darkness away.

"How are you feeling?"

Peeta had taken to asking him that question each morning and Haymitch's answer was always the same, "I could use a drink."

"You know, they resuscitated you twice. They brought a doctor to check on you, too," Peeta told him one day when he managed to stay awake for most of the morning. "She was told to just make sure that you'll make it. They don't want you to die."

"Makes sense that they want me alive."

"Why's that? So you can tell them about Thirteen, right?"

Haymitch lifted his eyes and studied the boy quietly. Peeta was watching his reaction to that question carefully, searching for a clue and waiting for a confirmation.

"They asked you about Thirteen," Haymitch said. "That's how you know about the district."

"Is there a District Thirteen, Haymitch?"

When Haymitch took too long to answer, Peeta unbuttoned his shirt. He shrugged it to expose deep blue bruises on his torso. Haymitch sucked in a breath.

"So is there?" Peeta demanded. "You've kept a lot of things from me and from Katniss so why don't you just tell me?"

Peeta was trying to control his temper. Haymitch could tell from the way his fist was clenched tight and the way his nostrils flared as he breathed.

"Because I think that's what they want me to do," Haymitch looked him in the eyes. "They put you here with me and they put Annie with Johanna in the hopes that we'll talk and we'll share what we know with both of you. They want information."

"Do you have any to give them?"

Haymitch tilted his head slightly and stared at Peeta pointedly.

"So why not just give them what they want? What does it matter anymore? Haven't you realized where we are? Look around you, Haymitch! Look what all your lying and secrets have gotten us."

"I didn't lie," Haymitch gritted his teeth, resenting that accusation. "I couldn't tell you or Katniss certain things, not with Snow watching."

"Omitting certain truth is lying!" Peeta raised his voice impatiently. "You should have told us about whatever this is that's going on."

"It was too dangerous. Both of you were in enough danger and I was tryin' to keep you out of it. I don't have to tell you anythin' if I think you don't need to know it yet. I don't owe you that."

Peeta narrowed his eyes. "But there was something that you owed me. We had this talk at your house before the reaping. You agreed to it. You _promised_ me that you'll get her out of the Games alive but you put her in the middle of a… of a … _rebellion_ ," Peeta was seething, "without her consent. You made her even more of a target than before."

Haymitch shook his head, not because he disagreed with Peeta but because despite his current circumstances, Peeta was still standing there in front of him, thinking only of Katniss' safety. Katniss never needed anyone's protection but if she ever found herself needing one, Peeta would do it at the cost of his own life - that was something Haymitch never doubted – and he was certain he could count on Peeta not to give Katniss up to the enemy under interrogation.

"I promise a lot of people a lot of things, boy," he growled.

"And you failed," Peeta told him without sugarcoating it.

He went to the other side of the room as far away from Haymitch as possible and sat on the floor, watching his mentor.

"I know what you're thinking. You think I've betrayed you," Haymitch waited for a challenge but it never came. "I didn't. There is a District Thirteen and that's where Katniss is right now. She's not alone but there's something she needs to do."

"She's there to fight."

"So that we can end the Games," Haymitch breathed heavily. "The districts need her. She's important to unify Panem."

Peeta frowned. "You're putting the burden of the whole country on her shoulder without telling her what she's getting herself into? You shouldn't have manipulated us like that."

There it was again; the sharp anger and the single minded focus to keep her safe. It made Haymitch almost green with envy that nobody would fight for him that way. _Almost._

He sighed. Explaining this was not going to be easy and he had hoped that this could be done at a later time but looking at Peeta, he knew he had been waiting for him to be conscious and alert for a while now so he could have an explanation. Haymitch had never bothered to explain himself to anyone but there was a need to let Peeta know that if he had manipulated them by keeping certain knowledge to himself, it was because it was absolutely necessary.

"The plan was to get you and Katniss out, get you _both_ to Thirteen. I made a promise to you and to Katniss. You two asked the same thing from me – get the other out alive. I don't make promises I don't intend to keep. Trust me when I said I tried my damnest fucking best to get you both out of there and it was at the costs of so many other people's lives. Finnick, Johanna, Mags, Beetee, Chaff… Half of the tributes were in on the plan – it was their mission."

If the Capitol had bugged this cell, which Haymitch had no doubt that they did, what he just told Peeta would already be information that they knew. He would not be compromising anything.

"That's not on me," Peeta told him but there was no heart in it. The boy didn't mean it. "That's not on me."

"No," Haymitch agreed. "That's on me."

"Oh, cut the sentimental bullshit," Johanna cut in. "There was no fucking guarantee we'd get out of the arena alive anyway so while I was at it, why not get the little bird and her lover boy out so they can wreck the Capitol? If there was any plan that came close to fucking the Capitol over, you can be sure I'm in on it."

"Jo's motivation is a little bit different but there you have it," Haymitch waved his hand.

"If you had told us," Peeta continued, "we would know how to – "

"No, it was better if you didn't know anythin'. Katniss is not like you. It's difficult for her to play it for the cameras. The slightest mistake and the slightest hesitation on her part would have screwed the plan and Snow was watching her more than he was with the others."

Peeta considered this for a moment, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on Haymitch before he gave a curt nod. He stretched on of the floor, folded his arms across his stomach and ignored him.

Haymitch knew a dismissal when he saw one though this one surprised him a little. He expected more from Peeta. He expected to be asked if the rebels would come for them or to explain more about Thirteen.

"Peeta…?"

"Just one thing, Haymitch," Peeta said without sparing him a glance. "Katniss will be safe in Thirteen, yes? Or as safe as she can possibly be."

"She's in a better fucking state than us, that's for sure," Johanna gave a bitter snort.

"Katniss is with Finnick and Beetee, and she's got Effie. She'll keep a look out for Katniss - that's what she's for," Haymitch told him, carefully avoiding the mention of Katniss' mother and sister because he had no idea if they were still alive.

"Effie's one of you?" Peeta raised an eyebrow, finally deeming that question important enough for him to look at Haymitch. "I would never have guessed. Effie Trinket, a rebel..."

Even his lips twitched at that thought. "She's not a rebel, no. But she'll do anythin' for you and Katniss. I trust her to keep Katniss safe."

"Funny thing is, Haymitch," Peeta propped himself on an elbow, "I trust Effie to keep Katniss safe more than I trust you right now."

"Harsh," Johanna added.

Peeta's anger was obvious to see but he didn't give in much to it. "I supposed it's better that she's there than here. She's the one the President Snow wants and as long as she's someplace else… I think I'll try to sleep now. You should, too. You're still recovering."

Haymitch ignored his advise. Instead, he swung his legs over the edge of the small, hard bed and stood up, bracing himself on the wall. He waited until the dizziness passed before he walked over to the bars.

"Johanna… Did they hurt you?"

"A slap here and a punch there when the fancy strikes them during questioning," Johanna told him.

"What did they ask?"

"Questions about Thirteen. _What's in that district? How many nuclear bombs they have? How many people in Thirteen?_ Can't say much, never been to that damn district. They want to know about the Rebellion. _How long it's been in the works and who are Plutarch's contact…_ Those things."

"What about Annie?"

"They left her alone. Lucky her."

"Yeah, I ain't surprised. We know she's bait for Finnick. I bet they're hoping Finnick will walk through the front door to get to her."

"He might be desperate enough to do that," Johanna pointed out.

"He can't," Haymitch shook his head. "He does that, Katniss will follow suit. We can't have that. He's got to stay put. He _knows_ he's got to stay put."

Peeta made a noise at the back of the cell at the mention of Katniss but he remained otherwise disengaged from the conversation.

"So what? We're relying on Thirteen? I don't like my chances with them," Johanna spat. Haymitch heard her shuffled closer and dropped her voice. "Make a fucking bargain with the Capitol. We can do that. Give them something they want and get them to take Annie out of here. She's not going to last long. She's not like us."

"You don't trust Thirteen but you're going to trust the Capitol by makin' a deal with them?" Haymitch asked in a dubious tone.

Johanna never had the chance to answer because they heard footsteps approaching. Before long, Peacekeeper Fox came into view and stopped right in front of Haymitch's cell.

"Ah, Abernathy," Fox smiled, looking very pleased to see him. "So good of you to finally wake up. We've been waiting."

Fox waved his hand and the gates slid open. From the moment he stepped in, Haymitch watched his every move. By now, Peeta was slowly getting to his feet, alert and wary all at once.

"I hope you both have had the chance to get reacquainted."

None of them answered him.

"You certainly look better compared to yesterday," Fox turned his attention back to Haymitch. "The worse of your withdrawal has passed, I hope."

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to personally congratulate you on pulling through. In fact, I got you a little something," Fox told him pleasantly but there was something in his tone that made Haymitch tense, preparing himself for the worse. "Thought you might appreciate this. Heard you kept telling Peeta here that you could use a drink."

 _So they did bug these cells,_ Haymitch gritted his teeth.

Fox placed a full, unopened decanter of whiskey on the floor at Haymitch's feet before backing out from the cell. The gates swung shut.

"Maybe after you're done and not shaking too much from the tremor, you and I can have a little talk."

He left, leaving Haymitch to stare hungrily at the bottle. His hands shook so badly and his mouth watered. He could already taste the liquor on his tongue. He had never been this thirsty.

 _Just a sip_ , he rationalised, _something to help with the shakes._

Haymitch took a step forward only to be roughly pushed back by Peeta.

"No!"

He grabbed the bottle and in one swift motion, threw it against the wall where it shattered. At that very moment, Haymitch couldn't find anything more tragic than seeing the liquid spilling on to the floor. The smell of whiskey almost made his knees buckle but all Haymitch saw was white. It filled his vision and the anger radiated through his veins, propelling him to reach out for Peeta and pinned the boy against the wall.

He was furious and he couldn't remember being this angry.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he hissed, pressing his arm against Peeta's throat. "You have no right. You know I needed that. You fucking knew that."

If he was rationale, he would have realised that in his physical state, Peeta could easily overpower him but he wasn't and Peeta remained where he was, letting Haymitch work through his anger.

"You don't need it. If you drink it, it'll get worst. I've said it before, Haymitch, you've already went through the worst of it and you've come out of it. Now, you just have to take control."

"You don't understand."

"Maybe not," Peeta closed his fingers around Haymitch's wrist and tugged on it. "But we _need_ you here."

Haymitch released his hold on him and stepped away, breathing heavily. Going back to the bed, he pressed his face against the thin mattress, trying desperately to block out the smell of liquor. He wasn't so desperate yet as to lick it off the floor.

XxX

Nobody came for them the next day. Haymitch sat near the bars, his legs stretched out before him with his back against the wall. Next door, he assumed Annie was in a similar position.

"You can't swim?" she asked him. Annie's voice was soft and gentle, and pleasant to listen to in this horrid place.

"Not really. Not as good as Finnick or you."

She spent her morning telling him about District Four - the sea, the voyages, the ships and nets they weaved. It kept Annie grounded somewhat to talk about her home, though sometimes, she still dropped off from the conversation at random points and it helped him focused his attention on something else other than needing a drink.

Haymitch had only met Annie once, the year she was crowned a victor, and he never thought prison would be the place he would get to know the young woman Finnick fell in love with.

He knew the relative peace wouldn't last.

The Peacekeepers stomped the place in the middle of the night, dragging Peeta out.

Haymitch tried to intervene. He shoved Peeta back and stood between him and the Peacekeepers but was easily overpowered. When he fell, one of them pressed a boot on Haymitch's throat, threatening to crush his larynx and suffocate him. Haymitch watched helplessly as Peeta disappeared from view.

He couldn't count the hours but Peeta was gone for a while before another group of Peacekeepers paid a visit. This time, it was Haymitch and Annie they wanted. Johanna fought and Haymitch expected nothing less from her. She scratched one of them across the face before they slammed the door and hauled a screaming Annie away.

"Annie," Haymitch struggled against his bonds, trying to get close to Annie. "Annie, it's okay. Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm here. Annie, look at me."

They were brought to a recording studio from the looks of it where he spotted Peeta looking alarmed as he caught sight of them. They had prepped him which would explain why he was taken first. He was wearing a pressed white suit and his prep team was there, too. They looked frightened.

"No," Peeta was shaking his head repeatedly. "You don't have to do this."

Fox grinned. "See here, Abernathy, Peeta was being stubborn. We weren't going to get you or Annie here," Fox walked over to them, "but he needed some motivation."

"What's going on?"

"They want me to give an interview," Peeta told him. "They want me to... talk about that night, Haymitch. They want me to call for a ceasefire. It's a message for Panem, for everyone."

 _For Katniss,_ Haymitch understood the intent behind the interview, _including District Thirteen. He can't call for a ceasefire._

It was difficult to think surrounded by Peacekeepers and it was difficult still with Peeta and Annie looking at him hopefully as if he could get them out of this. Over Peeta's shoulder, behind the glass window, he saw Caesar Flickerman who caught Haymitch's eyes and gave a curt nod.

Caesar would help. He would lead Peeta in to get the story out but it was still a bad move. Once Peeta appear live on national television, the rebels across the country would see it and he would be branded a traitor. Peeta had sold the story of being married to Katniss and they would expect the Mockingjay's husband to be on her side, on _their_ side. He shouldn't be calling for a ceasefire and if he did, Haymitch wouldn't know how Effie would spin the story or if she could even spin the story. Worst still, he wouldn't know how Katniss would react to it.

 _Katniss..._ What would he be thinking right now if he was in Katniss' shoes?

"Peeta," Haymitch lowered his voice. "Katniss doesn't know you're alive. She doesn't know any of us are alive. Nobody in Thirteen does, not Katniss and not Effie. If you go on air, Katniss will see you, you'll be able to give her hope but there's something you must know before you do this."

"What is it?"

"Thirteen will see you as traitor."

His eyes widened.

"If I call for a ceasefire, there will be no war," Peeta tried to rationalize. "Katniss will be alive. If she doesn't have to fight, the chances of her… Haymitch, I can keep her alive. I can-"

"It's not going to be that easy, Peeta. They're not going to lay down their weapons."

This wasn't the time nor the place to explain to him that the atrocities had been going on for too long and if this Rebellion fail, the next insurgent could be decades from now. The country would need to wait for another symbol like Katniss, and there was no guarantee in that even.

"Listen, if they ask you about me - you tell them you know nothin'. That ain't a lie. You keep up the story that you and Katniss were in the dark. If Snow's using you to call for a ceasefire, it means he's using you as a mouthpiece to get to Katniss. He needs you and as long as he does, you'll be kept alive. If it had been anyone else, they'll kill you if they think you have no information but I ain't gonna rely on that alone. You need to distance yourself from me. Make them think that I betrayed you; make the people in the Capitol sympathise with you - sell the story. You get their sympathies, you get them to love you and they might just keep you alive at the end of it, even if Snow doesn't."

"You're trying to protect me," Peeta blinked. "You're trying to keep me alive."

"That's my job. Peeta, you need - "

Before he could finish, Fox, who had been talking to Caesar, came back and ripped Haymitch away to force him on his knees.

"Don't hurt them," Peeta turned towards Fox. "Look, I'll do what you want. I'll talk about what happened that night."

"That's all you'll talk about?"

Peeta hesitated. His eyes flickered to Haymitch who could see the emotions playing across his face.

Fox crooked his finger and another peacekeeper pushed Annie forward so that she was standing next to Haymitch. He forced a gun into her hand, clicked the safety off and forcefully raised her hands so that she was pointing the gun directly at Haymitch's head. Her hands shook.

"Please," Annie uttered with tears streaming down her face, "I don't want to do this."

"Interview or no interview?" Fox rounded on Peeta. "I heard Annie Cresta is mad. I wouldn't trust a crazy girl with a gun. Would you? She might _just_ accidentally blow Abernathy's brain out and wouldn't that be a sight? Oh, and Abernathy, if you so much as move, I'll shoot her."

"You don't have to hurt them. I'll do it."

Peeta took his place on the chair across from Caesar. The cameras started rolling but still he said nothing. His eyes kept straying to Annie and Haymitch.

"Give it to him," Fox ordered.

Someone yanked Haymitch's hair back and he felt his mouth being pried open. The smell reached him first before he felt the liquor being forced down his throat.

 _We need you here_ , Peeta's voice rang in his ears. _We need you here._

He couldn't afford to fall back. He couldn't afford the cravings because he knew if he had a taste of it now, he would want more. Haymitch spat it out but they forced more down his throat, pinching his nose so he would have no choice but to swallow or choke to death.

"Maybe this time, Peeta, his withdrawal will really kill him if Annie Cresta doesn't do that job first," Fox laughed cruelly.

Haymitch couldn't control it now that the familiar warmth was spreading through his body once more. He guzzled the liquor down as much as he could before they stopped feeding him but they didn't. They kept going and he kept drinking.

"You're going to kill him," Peeta cried from behind the glass door of the recording studio. "You're going to poison him. Stop it, please, stop. I'll do the interview. I'll answer all the questions and call for a ceasefire."

Still, Fox laughed until Caesar pulled the door open, crossed the room over to Annie, took the gun away and shoved it at him.

"You know nothing about show business, Mr. Fox, but Peeta would need to perform. He needs to be calm for the cameras and he cannot do that if he's worried about it. Enough with the threats, please. They can stay but no more guns and no more threats."

Fox shrugged. He already had Peeta agreeing to do what he needed. Haymitch watched the interview with his arms around a shaking, terrified Annie.

The interview started out as well as could be expected, just as it did during his Games interview. But as the seconds ticked by and as the questions became more intense, Peeta grew agitated.

"We didn't know there was a bigger plan going on. We had no idea."

"What about your mentor, Haymitch Abernathy?"

"I shouldn't have trusted him," Peeta clenched his jaws, putting the hurt and the anger into that one sentence.

Caesar said nothing, letting that sentence sink in.

 _I trust Effie to keep Katniss safe more than I trust you right now_ _,_ Haymitch remembered him saying. It probably wouldn't be too difficult for Peeta to say that in the interview and mean it, too, even if Haymitch had ordered him let them think he had betrayed them.

That would be all over the country soon. He didn't want to think how Finnick, Katniss, Plutarch and Effie would react to Peeta's mistrust towards him. All he cared was that Peeta was still alive and he would be damned if he were to let anything else happened to him.

"Everyone needs to lay down their weapons immediately," Peeta called out, reading from the screen and saying it directly to the camera.

Nobody would know that behind the cameras, Peeta had been threatened to say that because his pleas for a ceasefire sounded genuine and that it sounded too much like it came directly from him.

* * *

 _It's the longer chapter yet so please leave a review, it will make my day! Tell me what you think :)_

 _On an unrelated note to this story, I'm going to watch MJ2 tomorrow and I am veryyyy excited for the hayffie!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A month.

Effie had been in District Thirteen for a month and while she was trying hard to keep it all together, it was proving to be a difficult task. She was often exhausted by the end of the day – meetings, visiting Katniss and Finnick at the hospital, more meetings – and the strict living conditions in Thirteen were not helping. One would think she would enjoy the schedule but not so much, not when 0900 hours and 1400 hours were gardening duties for her.

Effie didn't mind the hospital visits. Katniss and Finnick were the only friendly faces around.

Most of the time, Finnick was out of her reach. The longer the time ticked away, the more he worked himself into a state worrying about Annie. His palms were starting to swell and his fingers were blistering. For his safety, the nurses had tried to take away his rope and he nearly lost his mind until Effie stepped in to talk reasons that he was allowed the ropes again.

"I just came out from a meeting," Effie said for the second time.

"Where's that?"

"In Command, Finnick. They want you there, too, once you are better."

He nodded absent-mindedly and went back to working intricate knots. With a sigh, Effie squeezed his hand and promised she would be back to visit him after dinner. She left with a forlorn backward glance at him.

Along the corridor towards her compartment, Effie ran into Plutarch. She squeaked in surprised because she desperately did not want him to see her after she had to endure listening to him talk for half of the morning today. She longed for the reprieve from his presence but there was no way to avoid the man in this small hallway.

"She is missing again," Plutarch said without head or tail but since they have had this conversation three times this week, Effie knew who he was referring to.

"She needs space," she said once again, surprising herself with the patience she was currently exercising. "Katniss is in no state of mind to be attending _any_ meetings. The last time she attended, you pressed her too hard. I have informed President Coin of the same in yesterday's meeting."

He fell in step with her, his boots clicking against the floor. He walked her to her room. "This cannot go on indefinitely. How long more does she need?"

Plutarch, she noticed, was clutching a familiar object in his hand but Effie couldn't get a good look at it without being too obvious.

"Plutarch," Effie turned towards him just outside the door to her room, "I am her escort. Not her doctor. But what I _can_ tell you is that you need to give her time. The girl is grieving."

"Her mother and sister are alive, and so is that cousin of hers, Gale Hawthorne. His family made it to Thirteen, too."

 _That_ in Effie's opinion had been the one and only good news she had received since her arrival in District Thirteen.

Effie had waited anxiously at the hangar for their arrival and even she was a taken by surprise when Iris Everdeen made a beeline for Effie. Katniss' name was the first thing that spilled from Prim's lips and by the time Effie was done telling Prim and Iris that Katniss was alive in the hospital wing, Gale and his family had crowded around her too, wanting to know the news. Once he knew that Katniss was alive, Gale left her side without saying a word for which Effie was silently relieved because that boy made her uneasy.

"Honestly!" Effie threw her hand up in frustration at Plutarch's insensitivity. "Peeta Mellark and Haymitch Abernathy have been captured. I am sure you are aware how important those two people are to her, especially Peeta. Perhaps she is grieving for _them_."

"You seem to be harbouring the impression that I do not have any empathy for Katniss. I do, I really do," he insisted.

She had her doubts but Effie kept it to herself. She stepped into her room and half-heartedly invited Plutarch in. She might be in a different district but she still had her manners.

"I even understand that Haymitch not being here has impacted the girl tremendously -"

"Katniss has no love for Haymitch," Effie admitted with some reluctance. It had hurt her when Katniss had lashed out about being lied to by Haymitch and she thought it was unfair of Katniss but she couldn't blame the resentment either. She couldn't offer great word of comfort to change Katniss's mind on that matter except for a _'he cares for you, Katniss'_. "She is adamant that he had betrayed her."

"He would still fight for her," Plutarch went on, "and so should you. That's the reason Haymitch vouched for you. He made his case. He told me you will be instrumental to the cooperation of the Mockingjay."

Effie narrowed her eyes at that. She did not like Plutarch's tone at all.

"You are implying, of course, that I am not doing my job," she accused

That seemed to startle Plutarch and he quickly added, "I am not implying anything but President Coin is growing impatient. And because Haymitch had convinced me, I in turn had convinced the President that we should _trust_ you to bring the Mockingjay around. So you need to reach out to her."

Effie heard the threat that was left unsaid but the conversation was growing to be tiresome.

"I have told you before, Plutarch, that I am as clueless as Katniss is about this revolution. Haymitch kept her in the dark just like he did with me. It is difficult for me to convince Katniss when I myself – "

"I have already explained to you our plans with the propos. You are clear on -"

"Yes, that is all well and good but I have heard nothing about helping or rescuing those we have left behind. We have been here nearly a month. If there is a rescue attempt, I could relay this to Katniss. It'll give her something to believe in."

"I assure that it is being discussed."

"Like I said, _I_ heard nothing of it."

Plutarch's smiled was sympathetic, almost condescending.

"You are not privy to all the meetings that happened in Command, Effie, only those that will have a direct effect on the Mockingjay. You do not have the clearance so you will have to trust me. I consider Haymitch a friend, though I wouldn't say the feeling is mutual on his end. I will try my best. The plan is very delicate but Thirteen's authorities are working on it."

"You have too much faith in District Thirteen," Effie lowered her voice. "We need Haymitch and Peeta. I know the three of them and I understand very well the dynamics of my team. Katniss listens to Haymitch or at least, they understand each other in a way that I cannot come close to replicate."

"I cannot stress this enough but Katniss _needs_ Peeta. We have no idea if either of them are still alive, Plutarch," Effie cried. "And not knowing is a terrible feeling. It is affecting Katniss and Finnick, and it is affecting me," the last bit came out quietly but it was loud enough in the quiet room.

Plutarch crossed the room and took a seat next to Effie. He seemed to be waiting for her to rebuke him for it but Effie did not have the strength to. In a way, as much as Plutarch was difficult, he was someone from home. He endured the same dirty looks she received whenever he walked into the dining hall.

She understood his pining for coffee which was a luxury in District Thirteen and as such, denied to them. He was sympathetic with her when she made the mistake of crumpling a piece of paper and had people glaring at her as if she had just committed murder. Plutarch saw the trouble she had trying to fit in and had stood up for her once when President Coin made a snarky remark about her modified clothing.

"We all have a role to play," he spoke patiently. "I have mine and you have yours. You will need to do what Haymitch would have done if he is here. It is absolutely imperative, Effie. The country knows Katniss, they know her story. It cannot be anyone else."

Plutarch rose to retrieve the item he had brought with him when he approached Effie. He placed a bound, black canvas book on her lap.

"From Cinna - he gave it to me before the Games started this year," Plutarch explained. "When she agrees to be our Mockingjay, show that book to her but only _after_ she agrees. That was Cinna's instructions and we should honour it."

Effie brushed her hand over Cinna's book. She had often seen him bend over a table, sketching designs on a similar looking book only passing it off as Katniss' work for the Capitol.

 _Cinna._

Her heart ached at the memory of him. He was a dear friend but she had been thinking traitorous thoughts about him lately. It made her feel terrible but she couldn't denounced the feeling that if Haymitch were to be blamed for keeping the Rebellion from Katniss and Peeta when they were in the Quell, Cinna should have the portion of the blame for turning Katniss into a symbol without her consent. She wondered if Katniss ever saw it that way.

 _No use thinking ill of the dead,_ she gave her head a slight shake to get rid of the thoughts.

Very carefully, she opened the book and began thumbing through the pages until she came to a stop at a page with a drawing of Katniss in a Mockingjay outfit. Effie studied the picture. Katniss stood tall in it, fearless and resolute. This was the girl Cinna had envisioned to make a change and this was the girl Plutarch wanted to lead the Rebellion. This girl was their symbol.

The girl Effie had spent visiting every day in the hospital wing and a better part of her time wandering through the district searching for her was nothing like the person Cinna had sketched. Plutarch knew this, too. This was why he had given Effie the book now, a month after they arrived and not before. He was giving Effie something to believe in.

She was expected to work miracle and build Katniss back up again and prepare her for what was to come; to be the face, the symbol, and the rallying point. Effie was to be Katniss' stylist in place of Cinna, to be her prep team to make her up for the propos. Most importantly, and this was one of the difficult roles in Effie's opinion, she would have to play the role of Katniss' mentor.

Everyone is relying on Katniss and she in turn would need someone. Effie could never be what Haymitch was to Katniss but she could very well try. She would for Katniss, for Peeta and for _him._

XxX

A runner came knocking at her door once Katniss emerged from wherever it was she had been hiding that afternoon. Effie sent the boy away, wrapped her head with the scarf and made her way down to the hospital wing.

"Broom closet," Prim answered the unspoken question, grinning slightly. "She's getting creative."

"Katniss, dear," Effie began, taking a seat to Katniss' right. Right was hers while the chair on the left belonged to Iris Everdeen. Prim preferred the bed. "Do you remember what we talked about two days ago?"

"Peeta…" she whispered. "Peeta was left behind."

That had been part of the conversation, yes, but Katniss tended to focus on Peeta and District Twelve more than anything.

"Is he alive?"

Effie bit on her bottom lip. None of them had any idea if Peeta was alive. Finnick had demanded to know about Annie and had insisted that Plutarch get in touch with his contact immediately, so much so, that he had to be sedated. Effie needed to know if Haymitch was alive, too, but Plutarch's contact came back with nothing. No news was good news. That was how she managed to sleep at night, if she slept.

"We have to hope for the best. Have you thought about what I said? About helping them…" Effie broached the subject tentatively.

"They want you on their side," Prim added.

"To do what?" Katniss mumbled in a monotonous tone that frightened Effie more than anything.

She was the girl on fire and to so many others out in the district she still was but right now, she had no flame and no spark. When she was not hiding somewhere, usually in an attempt to avoid meetings in Command, Katniss spent most of her time lying in the hospital bed, her fingers rolling the only thing of Peeta she had left – the pearl from the arena. It was something Effie understood very well since she would at times touch the golden bangle around her wrist absentmindedly.

"To be a symbol for the revolution… They need you. That was why there was a plan to break you out of the arena. Do you remember us talking about this? Plutarch Heavensbee it seems had organised a group of rebels in the Capitol – I had no knowledge of this whatsoever, of course, so I am as clueless as you were about the plan," Effie waved her hand, "- and now, we are in cahoots with these cave dwellers."

Prim's lips twitched in amusement but she did not interrupt.

"I won't do it. Snow will kill everyone," Katniss intoned, staring at the ceiling. "Everything I do, every move I make, someone somewhere will end up dead."

 _So she had given it some thought_ , Effie mused.

Still, she could not help but sigh at Katniss' line of thinking. There was a smidgen of truth in it. Effie had never forgotten the old man in District Eleven.

"You can't think that way. I know you are scared but you won't be alone. For starters, I will be here with you. Besides, I've been told that Thirteen will have a whole team working for you. Speeches are being written as we speak for when you agree to help them. I know you feel tremendously alone. I do, too. But we must remember that we are not alone. We have each other, you and I. We're still a team, aren't we, Katniss?"

Effie did not get a respond to that. She would have to try and reach out to her again tomorrow. Prim gave her an apologetic look which Effie returned with a smile.

"They burnt my home," Katniss said suddenly, pushing herself up to look directly at Effie. "I want to see District Twelve. Before I do anything for them, I want to see my home."

It was not a condition Effie wanted to present to the authorities in Command and when they found out, Thirteen was against it altogether, crying about a waste of resources until Plutarch fought for Katniss. Effie suspected his reasons were purely selfish.

"I disagree, Plutarch," Effie crossed her arms, glaring at the former Head Gamemaker. "We are not sending that poor girl back to District Twelve, especially not in the state she is in. There is nothing left there and sending her back will only - "

"It's her condition to helping us. She wants to see it. In fact, she _needs_ to see it. Madame President," he pleaded the case directly to the highest in command, "I believe it will give Katniss something to fight for. Haymitch will say the same."

That was a low blow and Effie bristled at it. "Haymitch isn't here, is he?" Effie countered and then, in an almost desperate attempt, she added, "It is not safe for her."

"Of course it is. Katniss is valuable to us therefore, her safety is paramount. There will be hovercrafts circling Twelve's airspace. They will be invisible and out of view. At the first sign of danger, she will be extracted out."

"It is a waste of resources," Coin argued at the same time that Effie said, "and if that's too late?"

"I _need_ to go," Katniss spoke up for the first time.

It startled the people in the room even Effie, who, for a moment had forgotten that Katniss was present.

"Katniss, I do not think..."

"Twelve is my home, Effie," she said. "I need to see for myself what Snow had done because of _me_."

Plutarch lost his patience when Boggs tried to get a word in, insisting vehemently that it was better to waste a day than an entire month of Katniss mopping around and putting the entire Rebellion on a standstill.

XxX

Katniss returned with a cat. Effie propped her hand on her hip and stared at Katniss questioningly when she saw the fluffy tail disappeared from under the table in Katniss' compartment.

"I couldn't leave it behind. He belongs to Prim," she frowned, lifting her chin defiantly. "He survived when everyone else didn't."

It was at that exact moment that Effie wanted so much to pull her into a hug but it was only with a measure of self-restraint that she didn't. She didn't want to crowd the girl but she was so tremendously relieved to see the fight in Katniss' voice. Whatever Katniss had seen in District Twelve, it had returned her spark. Her eyes were brighter, more alive and angry.

Still, there was little development. Katniss avoided any further talk about becoming the Mockingjay until Peeta pushed her towards it.

Effie was sitting with Finnick in his hospital room when the live broadcast from the Capitol came on. They glanced at each other and when the camera zoomed out to show just who was sitting across from Caesar Flickerman, Effie gasped.

"Peeta," she let out a breath, pushing the chair back as she stood up.

"Where's Annie?" Finnick's eyes darted across the screen, searching for a sign.

"He's alive, Finnick," Effie exclaimed. She wanted to cry. She could feel the tears prickling her eyes. "He's alive."

"What about the others?" His tone was desperate. "Haymitch… Johanna… Do you see them?"

"They must be, too," Effie tried to assure him even though it was only Peeta they saw on screen. "They have to be. Why keep Peeta alive but not the others?"

Finnick seemed to consider this for a moment as Peeta began to give his interview, talking about the night.

 _She didn't know what she was doing. Neither of us knew there was a bigger plan going on._

"She didn't know…" Finnick repeated. "Annie doesn't know anything…. They took her still."

"Finnick?"

"They took her for me, _because_ of me. They're not going to kill her until they can get me to do something for them. As long as the Capitol think I have my uses, Annie will live," Finnick sounded delirious with this discovery. "Do you understand, Effie? They're going to keep Annie alive."

"That's terrible," Effie stared at him. "To use her like that against you…"

"That's exactly what they're doing with Peeta," Finnick gestured at the television screen. "They will keep Haymitch alive, too. He's still alive, Effie, don't lose hope."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he has a wealth of information so they won't kill him. They will use him. They will use Johanna."

"That's not comforting," Effie sank into the chair. "They will hurt him for information. They will – "

 _"_ _What about you mentor, Haymitch Abernathy?"_

They both looked up at that.

 _"_ _I shouldn't have trusted him."_

Finnick flushed with anger at Peeta's answer. Effie pressed the heel of her hand against her mouth.

"No, Peeta," Effie cried behind her hand. "He loves you, too."

XxX

The interview kept her up all night and by early morning on the following day, her presence was demanded in Command.

President Coin asked her again and again what Peeta thought he was doing. Effie would have found the question alarming and President Coin's sudden distrust suspicious but she had heard whispers of 'traitor' and of him 'trying to protect the Capitol' that Effie had an inkling of what the President was driving at.

"I cannot answer for Peeta Mellark," Effie told her. "I can't say for sure why he said the things he did but …" Effie stopped abruptly.

 _"…_ _is this really what we want to do – kill ourselves off? Killing is not the answer."_

"He's protecting Katniss. He's trying not to get her killed" Effie said with a stroke of brilliance. She could spin the story for that ceasefire into Peeta's need to protect. It did help that Peeta had said his wish was to save Katniss at the beginning of the interview. "A call for a ceasefire meant that Katniss will be safe. That's all he ever wanted for her."

"This is propaganda, Madame President. It's nothing new in the Capitol. Every show, every broadcast is a calculated move," Plutarch jumped in on it with a sly look in Efife's direction. She would need to remember to thank him later. "We have plans to do the same once Katniss agrees to it."

"Make her agree, Miss Trinket," President Coin ordered. "I will not wait any longer."

Effie noted the dismissal when she turned away from her and began to talk to Plutarch. All the way back to her room, Effie was worrying herself about Katniss. She was running out of ideas on how to talk to Katniss and convince her, and she was especially worried about what President Coin would do if Katniss still refused.

Seeing Katniss in her room waiting for her with the pearl clutched tight in her hand surprised her.

"Katniss," Effie plastered a smile on her face. "Is everything alright?"

"I – Peeta…"

"I know. I saw it, too," Effie took her hand and led her to the bed where they sat side by side. "He wasn't..."

"He's alive and I need to get him back. What he said was wrong," Katniss told her with an edge to her voice. "There can't be a ceasefire. Things can't go back to the way it was. If he only knew what they did to Twelve, he wouldn't call for a ceasefire."

Effie blinked. "Katniss? You shouldn't be angry with him. He's -"

"I'm not," she frowned. "I'm angry at Snow. I'm going to be the Mockingjay. If by being that it means that the rebels will fight back, then I'll do it. We can't have a ceasefire, Effie."

Once the shock had passed, Effie broke into a warm smile. She clasped Katniss' hands and guided her to the table at the corner of her room where she kept Cinna's sketch book. Katniss flipped through the pages and just like Effie had, she stopped at the sketch of her in the Mockingjay outfit.

"They have it, Katniss," Effie told her earnestly. "They have the Mockingjay outfit."

Katniss raised her head, surprised.

"We are going to make you the best dressed rebel in history."

That statement sounded so much like something the Effie from Capitol would say that Katniss cracked a smile. She brushed her hand on the cover of Cinna's book.

"I'm going to be the Mockingjay," she repeated. She seemed enthralled by the sketch of her in the outfit.

"And I will be with you every step of the way," Effie promised. "I may not know much about fighting or warfare," she touched the head scarf gingerly when she admitted the weakness, "but I do know a thing or two about good television. I will be there whenever you need me. We will get them back, Katniss."

* * *

 _How do you think Effie is coping? How is she filling Haymitch's role? Leave me a review & let me know :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_tw: some mention of torture_

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

The withdrawal had been brutal but he had emerged on the other side, alive and learning to cope without the vice that dominated most of his adult like. But having liquor forced down his throat during Peeta's interview destroyed it and right now, with nothing much to do in his cell, his mind kept returning back to the taste of it.

He tried to force the thoughts out – mind over body – and he thought that maybe he could do it.

Then it began.

Haymitch was fed alcohol every single day. There was also a piece of bread provided to the cell. When the guards found out that Peeta had tried to feed him half of his share of the bread, the beatings made it not worth the boy's effort.

He refused point blank each time Peeta tried again and again to discreetly have him eat something.

"You can't survive only on liquor," the boy hissed. "I don't care what you said. It's going to kill you."

Peeta himself had grown thin. He wasn't Katniss. No matter how dire the situation was in District Twelve, he never had to really starve the way people in the Seam did and though he never complained, surviving on a mouldy piece of bread day in and day out was taking its toll on him.

"I can't have you dying in here, Haymitch. We _need_ you," Peeta tried and Haymitch reluctantly accepted it.

He nibbled on the bread slowly, his stomach already protesting. He swallowed hard and tossed the bread back to Peeta when he heard the sharp clicking of boots making its way down the corridor.

"What is it this time?" Haymitch cocked his head. "Whiskey or vodka?"

The guard's hands were empty which meant he wasn't here to deliver anything. Haymitch was hauled out of his cell as was Johanna. Peeta jerked forward and made a grab for the back of Haymitch's shirt only for him to be shoved back.

"Today's not your day but we'll come back for you soon," the guard said and locked the cell, leaving Peeta alone.

As Haymitch passed by Johanna's cell, he caught a glimpse of Annie huddled in a corner, staring at them fearfully.

The interrogation room was small but it had a window at least. For the first time in weeks, he saw the sun and felt the warmth of it on his skin. The chains rattled loudly when he lifted his hand to touch the warm spot on his skin, never realising that he could miss something as simple as that.

He barely even lifted his head when the door opened but he clenched his jaws in annoyance when a map of Panem was thrown at his face.

 _Manners_ , Effie would have said, he thought bitterly.

"District Thirteen, Abernathy, I want to know exactly where that is," Fox's right hand man snarled at him.

Haymitch's lips curled into a sneer.

"You stupid or something? You have it marked right there on your damn map."

The punch on the left side of his jaw nearly blinded him. His ear rang and he was suddenly reminded of that one time when he got into a scuffle with one of the older boys in school. That punch had left him deaf in one ear for a week and he had a feeling that this one would too.

"Don't play dumb. _That's_ an old map."

"Then get a new one," Haymitch spat the blood on the map.

The door creaked open a second time and Fox entered. He clicked his tongue and pulled a chair to sit across from Haymitch.

"Haymitch, Haymitch, there is no need for all this hostility. And you, Philo, you should have treated him better… Give him some food, maybe. A pack of smokes… You smoke, Haymitch?"

Fox was smiling when he asked him that and Haymitch tensed slightly.

He could deal with Philo. Haymitch wasn't afraid or worried of him. Men like Philo were predictable; they were all brawns and no brains. They act first. They would throw punches and kicks, and bash his head but that was all they would do.

Not Fox. Fox was dangerous.

Haymitch was wary of him. Fox was the kind to take a step back to monitor the situation, cataloguing strengths and weaknesses. What made it worse was that his mood swings made him terribly unpredictable. He could be nice one second like he was now, and in the next, he would be stepping on Haymitch's throat, threatening to crush his larynx.

"I don't smoke."

"Ah, well, I do," Fox said, fishing a pack of cigarettes and lighting it up.

He inhaled deeply and blew it in his face, and Haymitch turned away. It reminded him too much of Effie, who would escape to the rooftop for a smoke when the stress became too much for her. They made quite a pair; him with his drinks and her with her smokes.

"We need new information," Fox said, flicking his cigarette butt.

"Don't feel like giving you any. Nah," Haymitch taunted him, "today doesn't seem like a good day."

"Alright," Fox leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs. Philo remained standing by the door, watching Haymitch. "Let's just talk then, what do you say?"

"Yeah," Haymitch shrugged. "What's going on out there?"

"Here in the Capitol? Nothing much – things are getting a little bit boring actually. The fun's all out there in the district but here I am, stuck with you. Don't you wish you were out there as well, Philo, where all the actions are?" Fox craned his neck to look at his lackey who nodded once but said little else. "We've been bombing a few districts – that's always fun, yes? Eight just took a hit yesterday."

Haymitch sucked in a breath.

" _But_ something interesting came up, now that I think about it. See, my men searched your escort's apartment right after we got you. Can't find her anywhere – she wasn't at the Penthouse when we arrested you, not at her apartment, not at her parents' or her sister's. Odd, isn't it? She seemed to have vanished the same time when the arena exploded. I have a theory - want to hear?

Haymitch was careful not to let any emotions play across his face.

"I think that bitch is one of yours."

"That's a wild theory," Haymitch snorted. "She could be hiding," he said, not giving anything away. "You stormed the Penthouse. If she was in it that shit is gonna scare her. People like her ain't used to being scared."

"We'll find her eventually. All those time she spent as Twelve's escort, she ought to know something and we'll get answers from her, unless of course, she's turned _traitor_ just like you."

"Effie Trinket, a traitor?" Haymitch scoffed. "Have you _seen_ her? She's every bit Capitol," he spat the word and tried to make it sound as insulting as he could.

"Plutarch Heavensbee's a Capitol and a traitor to boot," Fox pointed out, watching Haymitch and searching for some signs. When he found none, he moved on to different matters. "This… treaty that we have with District Thirteen requires us to adopt a policy of non-interference. We leave them on their own and they leave us alone."

"I'm surprised you didn't snoop around; plant bugs to listen in to their conversations or send a drone to spy on them."

"Haymitch, aren't you full of surprises?" Fox's eyes lighted up. "You seem to have a good idea on how espionage works. These skills of yours... It doesn't come from being a … _rebel_ , does it?"

"No, it comes from years of being _watched_ by Snow."

"Well," Fox clapped his hands together, "the talk's been interesting so far, so let's get to serious business, shall we?"

Haymitch clasped his hands on the table, the chains digging into the skin of his wrists.

"You're a rebel," Fox stated. "I know that. So you were in on everything, every rebel plans. Now, if you can just share that information, I'd appreciate it very much and we can all go on our merry way. You back to your cell and me back to my woman."

"I'm not in a hurry. No one's waiting for me anywhere," Haymitch chuckled, pushing boundaries one taunt at a time. "You ain't allowed to marry and have kids but you're allowed to keep a woman?"

"I'm a man. I have needs," Fox grinned. "Look, I know you're not the hopeless drunk people were quick to dismiss you, Haymitch. No, no, in fact, I think, it'll be a mistake to underestimate what you're capable of. Tell me about District Thirteen. I want to know their weaknesses, their leader's weaknesses. I want to know how well armed they are; how many nuclear heads they have. Everything."

Haymitch remained firmly quiet. His lack of answers annoyed Fox so greatly that he slammed Haymitch's head on the table without any warning. Haymitch groaned and when he lifted his head, he could feel the warm blood from his head seeping into his eyes.

"Start talking."

Haymitch sneered at him and lifted his chained hands, flipping the peacekeeper off. Taunting Fox was never a good idea but he had been doing it and he wasn't going to stop. Apart from the kind of information he could give, not co-operating was the only measure of control he had left, the only way for him to fight. If this was the end of the line for him, he would go down fighting. He refused to betray his comrades and friends in District Thirteen.

"Fuck off."

It drove Fox mad. He grabbed Haymitch's hand, extended them over the width of the table and slowly, began to inset a needle on his fingertip. Haymitch's hand twitched and he growled deep in his throat. His nerves were on fire and the pain was getting more intense as the needle was pushed in deeper.

"You have nine other fingers."

"You can try but it doesn't change the damn fact that I don't know any of their plans," he breathed heavily.

"Let's try again," Fox pulled on his hand again and with a pair of pliers, he pulled the fingernail on his index finger.

The pain was unimaginable and Haymitch didn't even realize he was screaming.

"Fuck," he spat. His eyes were scrunched in pain and when he opened them, his index finger was bleeding but Fox hadn't pulled the nail clean off from his finger.

Fox released the plier. "Start talking, Haymitch."

"I fucking told you. I don't know anythin'."

It wasn't what Fox wanted to hear so he pressed his thumb down on Haymitch's bleeding finger. Haymitch screamed.

Fox flicked the needle jutting out from his other finger and the scream coming out from his throat was raw.

"Get Annie Cresta, Philo. I am bored."

"No," Haymitch shook his head. "No."

"Physically torturing you didn't seem to have a much of an effect on you right now. Everyone has a breaking point, Haymitch, a threshold for pain. I'd love to find yours out but maybe another time. I've got places to be and needs to be taken care off."

Philo returned with Annie, scared out of her mind. When she saw Haymitch and the blood on his fingers, she took a step forward but Philo yanked her back. He squeezed her arm and she whimpered.

"You don't hurt her," Haymitch hissed.

"Then start talking."

Knowledge is power which meant that he could pick and choose what kind of information to tell them. It wouldn't cost the Rebellion anything and he needed to say something to make sure Annie remained safe.

"That plan was to get Katniss and Peeta out," Haymitch began. "Get them both to Thirteen and when we're there, we'll know. We'll be briefed on – Dammit," he cursed again when Fox pulled the needle out an inch and stopped, waiting for the rest of it. Annie clamped her hands over her ears and looked away, facing the wall. "I never got to District Thirteen. I don't know the rest of the plan. Alma Coin ain't going to tell us all of her fucking plans, is she?"

"Alma Coin…" Fox hummed. "That'll be who exactly?"

"Shit," Haymitch bit his tongue. "Shit."

With all the pain and the stress, he had completely forgotten that District Thirteen was hidden so far underground for so long, that nobody knew anything about them.

"You better just tell me. We'll find out sooner or later"

"She's the President of Thirteen," Haymitch panted, releasing that information to the Capitol because Fox was right, they would find out soon.

President Coin would establish herself soon in order to move forward with the Rebellion and holding on to that information would serve him no purpose.

"Good, Haymitch, very good," Fox nodded approvingly. "You deserve a treat."

By treat, Fox meant a drink. He sent Philo and Annie away and left the room for a short while. When he returned, he held in his hand a bottle of whiskey. Haymitch stared at the amber liquid.

Fox poured them both a drink, swirled his glass and watched Haymitch patiently. Haymitch clenched his jaws and turned his head away.

"Don't you want it? Trust me, it's not poison. I still need you around after all. Oh, go on, Haymitch, have a drink," Fox pushed the glass towards him.

It remained untouched.

"I said drink it!" Fox ordered and pulled a gun on him.

Still, Haymitch didn't move until Fox pulled the trigger and he felt the bullet whizzed past him and nicked his ear. It bled. He could feel something warm spreading down his neck.

"Trust me, Haymitch, it's not worth getting shot over a glass of whiskey. I'll go for your kneecaps next time. Drink it. Oh, right," Fox chuckled, "let me pull that needle out of your finger first."

"You should make up your mind if you want me sober or drunk," Haymitch spat, grabbing the glass and downing the contents in one go. His fingers were throbbing and the pain shot up his arm when he curled and uncurled them around the glass.

"Everyone's got weaknesses," Fox poured him another with a deep laugh. "Katniss Everdeen's weakness other than that sister of hers is Peeta Mellark. She is his, too. Annie Cresta is Finnick Odair's weakness but you and I both know that that woman is bat shit crazy."

"So why take her?"

"It aren't worth our while wasting our resources on her, so we'll just let Odair stew in Thirteen, wondering what kind of horrors his girl is going through. That's fun right? Johanna Mason's tough – we'll figure out what makes her tick but you…" he chuckled. "Other than those two kids, you haven't got anybody, do you? Your family's dead," Fox said nonchalantly. "We've already killed your girl and I don't remember you keeping any mistress we can use. You have no one."

 _Effie. Effie. Effie,_ her name surfaced in his mind, unbidden but filled him with warmth and fear at the same time.

"It doesn't matter if you've got no one," Fox went on.

Haymitch breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't know about Effie or that she was important to him, even if he had spent years denying that. All those time he had insisted they be extremely careful were worth it.

"But aside from your sentimentality for these other victors, you've got a vice," he raised his glass. "In prison, that's a weakness and I plan to break you with it."

"You're clearly waiting with bated breath for me to ask the question so you can explain it to me… so, how?"

A gleeful smile broke on Fox's face.

"We're going to give you so much to drink and when we feel like it, we'll stop it. Torturous, isn't it, not knowing when you won't get alcohol? How does it feel knowing that sooner or later, you'll have to dry out again, Haymitch? And we'll keep repeating that over and over. It will break you; physically and mentally."

That made sense. That made so much sense all of a sudden and Fox was right, a chilling dread had already begun to spread inside of him. He was so dependent on liquor and had used it as a crutch to cope for more than twenty-years that the very thought of his supply being cut off at any given minute when they felt like it was terrifying. He didn't think he could go through the withdrawal again; the muscle ache, the nausea, the cold sweats. He didn't think he could survive through the nightmares, the delusions and hallucinations. There were ghost he would rather not face in this place.

"I don't break that easy," he said.

But as long as they were under the impression that the only way to break him was with alcohol then, he would let them try. He wouldn't let them use him against Effie or Katniss.

"We'll see," Fox smiled, a malicious grin that made his blood ran cold. "My colleagues are working on Johanna Mason. We've got a bit more time before I have to send you back to your cell. What'd you say? Shall we pay them a visit?"

* * *

 _How long can haymitch remain who he is - stubborn and sarcastic - before he breaks and loses hope? And Johanna, too._

 _Please, leave a review!_

 _A/N: There won't be an update next week as I'll be on vacation to Bali! See you the week after :)_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"He'll be with me," Effie assured the nurse. "I will make sure he returns by evening."

Flashing Effie a grateful smile, Finnick grabbed the now frayed rope and followed her out of the hospital room. Lately, he had been taking walks with Effie along the corridors of the hospital wing and the glazed, lost look that he spotted since his arrival was slowly dissipating. Effie assumed that those walks were doing him some good as compared to being cooped up in his hospital room with nothing to do except to think the worse of Annie's fate.

"How are you?" Finnick asked, making small talks. "It must be a relief now that Katniss has finally agreed."

"Oh, you can't imagine," Effie nodded, laughing lightly. "Especially so with the immunity President Coin granted. I have been worrying about Peeta..."

"As I am with Annie. She … She may say something without realising and well," Finnick shrugged, "Katniss has taken care of that. Now we must take care of her. You heard the threat from the president, didn't you?"

Effie offered him a tight smile. Power play had never been something Effie had concern herself with until recently; until the Quell opened her eyes to the meaning behind sending Victors back to the arena - a show of power, of who was in-charge. It was the same here. Katniss demanded immunity and President Coin granted it provided Katniss submitted herself wholly to the cause.

"Where Katniss is concern, I am trying my best with the time I have," Effie told him.

There wasn't much time given to her to help Katniss. President Coin was eager for the propaganda spots to be filmed and aired. Katniss had spent far too much time procrastinating about being the Mockingjay that when she finally agreed, everything had to be sped up.

Coaching and teaching Katniss on what to say and how to smile for her interview during the 74th Games was a daunting task in itself but coaching her on how to _act_ for the propos was an impossibility. The stakes were much higher. Effie was feeling the pressure and Katniss had never been much of an actress to begin with.

"Peeta would be good at this," Katniss muttered gloomily after the third time that she tried and failed to do as Effie had taught her.

"He'd be a natural," Finnick nodded in agreement. "But you shouldn't give up so easily."

"It's him they should have rescued to be the voice."

"Don't think that way," Effie chided her. "You have your strengths and he has his."

"This isn't mine."

"I know just the very thing that will cheer you up," Effie smiled, trying to lift her spirits. "Plutarch told me you are permitted to go down to Special Weaponry. I believe Beetee has something for you. Why don't you go, dear, while I prepare your suit? And don't take too long to return to the studio!"

Katniss was out of there in a blink.

"I have to be at the hospital wing for my therapy," Finnick told her. "I will see you after."

Alone, Effie made her way to retrieve the Mockingjay suit and she was somewhat glad that there was only her there. She was no prepared for the onslaught of emotions. She felt the air leave her body the moment she laid eyes on the black armour. Cinna resonated in the suit so strongly Effie could feel it. She saw his careful, gentle hands crafting it and the details that went into the suit.

She reached out to touch the shoulder plate tenderly and then to the pin clipped on the chest, black to match everything else.

On their side, they had suffered heavy losses; acquaintances, colleagues, friends. Plutarch's contact could not locate Portia and the rest of Peeta's and Katniss' prep team. Right now, after watching Peeta's interview, the best they could hope for was that the prep team had been captured to prep Peeta for interviews.

Effie shook her head slightly. She did not want to dwell on such thoughts. It was too dark and she could not imagine them in prison. Except now that she had thought of prison, her mind naturally went to Haymitch.

She wondered if Haymitch had seen the Mockingjay suit before or the drawing of it at the very least. Had Cinna shared this with him?

 _Haymitch,_ she brushed the pad of her thumb over the black pin.

If there was one thing she could never forget, it was the look on Haymitch's face when he first saw the pin on Katniss at the train after the reaping for the 74th Games. He had gritted his teeth, paled face as if he had seen a ghost and without another word, stalked past her to go into the bar car, leaving her alone to deal with the tributes.

She didn't understand it then but that night, when he sought her out and crawled into her bed, he had whispered in her ear, _I see Maysilee everywhere._ When he told her about Maysilee's pin, he had stared unblinkingly at the ceiling. He explained to her about the jabberjays, the mockingjays and what it meant. He told her about how he had pocketed the bloodied pin after Maysilee's death. He had returned it to Marilyn, her twin sister, and he told her that that was the last time he saw her. His breath were shallow and deep as if it took all the effort he had to control himself and then he had rolled over her; kissed her hard enough to bruise and touched her desperately, urgent with need. _Make me forget_ , he had breathed into her skin and she complied, giving him what he needed.

Where he was now, she wasn't there to make him forget or ease his pain. She wasn't there for him to use as a distraction anymore.

"Please be strong, Haymitch," she whispered, "for me. Katniss will fight and I'll see you soon."

Later, when she pinned the token on Katniss' suit over where her heart would be, it was Cinna's name she uttered but it was Haymitch, the ghost of Maysilee that the pin brought back to him and the memories of him confiding in her that lingered on her mind. She tucked it away, safe in her heart.

She made some minute adjustment to Katniss' make-up - Plutarch had brought everything they needed from the Capitol and since Haymitch didn't give her much time to pack, Effie pocketed a lipstick which Katniss saw and gave a conspiratorial smile her way - and took a step back to admire her. Something surge inside of her. _Pride._

Finnick who had returned from therapy and was lingering around the studio must have seen what Effie saw because he strode over, chuckling with humour that Effie must admit she had missed.

"They'll either want to kill you, kiss you or be you."

Effie watched this with fondness. It was a good sign if Finnick was there exchanging banter with Katniss.

"Now, Katniss, you only have one line to say," Effie told her.

She glanced down at the small placard in hand. Katniss was supposed to recite the line into the camera while channelling her emotions, her fury and a burning for need for justice. It was _one_ line, it shouldn't be too difficult or at least Effie hoped it wouldn't.

"Remember Katniss, your goal is to reunite the districts," she reminded. "Whenever you're ready…"

Katniss stepped on to the platform, looking stoically at the camera. When Plutarch gave the signal, she began. "People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!"

Effie cringed. Finnick crossed his arm and hung his head. It was stiff and flat. Katniss, at least, listened to the first half of the instruction - she recited. She forgot to act.

"Didn't you practice this with her earlier?" asked Finnick.

"Yes," she hissed. "But we could do with a little bit more time. Everything is so rush! Do you think it will help if we give Katniss her real bow instead of that wooden - "

"Try again," Plutarch's voice cackled over the intercom, drowning Effie's suggestion.

The second time was no different.

"You've just been into battle!" came Plutarch's frustrated cry.

Effie shot Plutarch a look.

He waved his hands in an apologetic gesture over the glass window. "Sorry," he said. "Sorry. Let's – "

"Katniss," Finnick tried. "Imagine everyone dead in the battlefield around you. Picture it and then say it."

It was better but not good enough. If they were to put this on air, no rebels would be convinced enough by it to fight. The Capitol would spin this into a sorry story.

"What would Haymitch said if he's here?" Effie turned to Finnick urgently. "Haymitch could always get her to do things, to understand things. If we can just – "

"He'll think she just killed the revolution," Finnick laughed.

Having heard what he said, Katniss glared at him. Finnick raised both hands in a mock surrender but Effie recognised the truth in Finnick's words. In fact, she could picture Haymitch and she could hear his mocking, insulting laugh, saying something along the line, _that my friend, is how a revolution dies_ or something equally sarcastic.

XxX

It wasn't a surprise that they were all soon gathered at Command. What was surprising, however, were the people sitting around the table.

"Don't worry," Finnick told her as he wheeled Beetee in and got him settled. "I invited them."

"This was you? Why did you invite them?"

"They're from District Twelve. I thought if anyone here would know Katniss, it'll be them."

"Katniss is not the most social person," Effie remarked. "What are you planning? Will it work?"

Without answering her, he slipped his rope into his pocket and stood up. All eyes were now trained on him.

"As another victor and rebel," he gave a nod in Katniss' direction, "I'd just like you say that if the position was reversed and I had to stand on that studio as the Mockingjay to recite those lines, it wouldn't feel natural to _me._ No offence, Plutarch, that was a great line but it doesn't feel _real._

"Of course, it is! If Katniss could just – "

"You misunderstand," Finnick raised a hand to silence him. "It's not something that would come out of my mouth or Katniss' for that matter. Watch the footage again."

Katniss slid lower in her seat, looking everywhere except at the screen.

"Do you feel _anything_ at all? Do you feel inspired? Angry for justice? Do you feel like jumping to your feet to march over to the Capitol and end it all? Does it make _you_ want to fight?"

Nobody answered him. Nobody needed to.

"The point of this propaganda spot is for Katniss to make us feel something strong enough to unite everyone, isn't it?" Effie addressed the room. "So we would need materials that Katniss can use to evoke such emotions."

"And how do you suggest we do that, Ms. Trinket?" Coin turned her gaze towards her.

"I am not sure, Madame President," she answered honestly even if she didn't like it. It gave off the impression that she was unprepared and it made her feel stupid but Effie wasn't willing to back down so she tried. "When Katniss volunteered for her sister, I was there on that stage and I – I felt shocked because it had never happened in Twelve before. I felt moved by her actions."

"Yes!" Finnick jumped in eagerly. "Yes, moments like that. There are others, surely? Moments when Katniss did something that made you pause, made you reevaluate something? For me, it was when Peeta hit the force field during the Quell and she sank to her knees trying to shake him awake…. when she cried for him, thinking he was dead."

Katniss looked positively uncomfortable by now. She crossed her arms and refused to look at anyone. A part of her understood Katniss' reaction perfectly. If everyone was discussing about her as if she wasn't there, she would feel ill at ease too.

"When she sang that song, when the little girl died."

Effie scanned the table, trying to identify to whom that voice belonged too. It was the soldier who was constantly by the President's side, Boggs was his name. She tilted her head, considering the man again. When she first met him, Effie had paid him no attention. He was most likely another one of the President's mindless soldier but his contribution, especially the fact that he was talking about Katniss' treatment to her ally from another district, was surprising. Perhaps there was more to him, she thought.

"When she extended her hand to Chaff, that night of the interview," Beetee added quietly. "Who would have thought of that? Who would have thought of such quiet defiance?"

A quiet murmur spread across the room and Katniss even raised her head in surprise at that. She caught Effie's eyes and Effie gave her an encouraging smile.

"How 'bout when she stepped in front of that Peacekeeper when the boy here," an old woman nodded at Gale, "got whipped at the pole. Went right up front and stood between 'em she did."

 _Greasy Sae,_ Effie placed the name to the face.

Across the room, Gale frowned. "What you're trying to say here," he spoke to Finnick directly, "is that those are Katniss' moments. Nobody told her what to do or say."

Finnick smiled.

"Unscripted!" Beetee exclaimed. "Will that work, Katniss? If we leave you alone?"

"In a studio?" Effie queried.

She really did not want to be the one to bring the mood down, especially not when they had gotten somewhere in trying to understand Katniss but they had to be realistic here.

"What will she do in there alone and unaided? There's really not much room for her to be televised unscripted in a studio," Effie pointed out. "A studio is hardly the most appropriate place for any spontaneity and that's what you want from her, isn't it? A moment of spontaneity to move the crowd that comes from deep within her."

"Unless we put her in a battlefield," Finnick added helpfully.

"That is barbaric - outrageous!" Effie thundered. "I thought you were trying to help her, Finnick," she exclaimed with all the indignation of someone who thought she had been betrayed.

"I am," Finnick nodded earnestly. "I'm trying to help us all."

"Finnick's right," Gale said. "But isn't she _'pregnant_ '?"

There was a sudden shift in the conversation; a flurry of debates on the best way to tackle the issue but Plutarch was quick to settle that problem.

"We cannot guarantee her safety," Boggs frowned once they had gotten back on track. "She'll be a target for – "

"I want to go," Katniss voiced out for the first time. "I'm no help to the rebels here, and if I'm killed, make sure you get some footage of that."

"Katniss!" Effie hissed. She was unsettled by the mere thought of it. "My job is to look out for you and keep you safe."

"We're in a war, Effie. Nothing is safe while Snow's alive. I have to do this. You told me my job is to reunite the district, that's what I'm trying to do and I won't be alone," she looked at Gale. "Let me do it."

Effie bit her lip, looking around at everyone on the table. Would this be what Haymitch would have wanted?

* * *

 _I love Haymitch with all my heart (so nobody else will be taking his iconic - and, that my friends, is how a revolution dies) and I love Effie too but I also love Finnick dearly. So I just wanted to give him a slightly bigger role in Peace other than being a distraction later on by exposing Snow's dirty secret and then die in a one swift paragraph. Without Haymitch, Finnick is another victor who i feel would come close to understand what it takes to survive and what surviving means, so he can help Katniss in a way. Also, in MJ2, I get a lot of Finnick being a big brother to Peeta feels and I think, he could in a way play the role of a big brother to Katniss here in D13._

 _This chapter wasn't so easy to write initially but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I hope you like that bit about Haymitch & the pin, and Effie 'mentoring' Katniss and Effie at the meeting. Leave me a review!_

 _A/N: For next week's chapter, there may or may not be an update on Sunday. I will be going on another vacation and returning on Sunday itself so it will depend. In any case, happy holidays and merry christmas!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Update as normal bc I reached Singapore surprisingly early! :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

Haymitch recognised where he was - the tributes' Training Centre. The doors slid open to admit him. Flanked by Fox and Philo, he walked with his hands cuffed in front of him between rows of multiple rooms with its floor to ceiling glass windows.

On his right was the room where at sixteen years old, he had tried to learn and memorise the different poisonous plants and fruits as much as he could within the space of days. Further down were the sharp weapons where he had tried the swords, machetes, axes and knives, and feeling ill at ease at the foreign weight of those weapons in his palm.

"You want to train me for something?" Haymitch gave a humourless chuckle.

"You'll make a terrible soldier," Fox claimed. "You let yourself get captured and you aren't even equipped with something to kill yourself in the event of capture."

"You'd have killed yourself if you were captured?"

"I won't let the enemies have their ways with me," Fox sneered and Haymitch kept his gaze straight ahead, mulling over his words. "But you're too much of a coward to die, aren't you, Haymitch?"

They came upon an occupied room at the very end.

Haymitch slowed down, staring at the sight in front of him. He had zero understanding of what he was seeing it.

A metal chair was in the middle of the room, the silver cuffs dangling from it. The room was flooded and Johanna was there, ankle deep in water, circling the room, trying to figure things out. She was alone with no Peacekeepers in sight and interrogators.

If Johanna could see him, she would have reacted by now but since she hadn't it meant that Haymitch was standing behind a one way glass window. He stepped forward, raised his bound hands to pound loudly on the glass. Johanna tilted her head, listening and then turned directly towards where he was. She stared confused and annoyed.

"What do you want from her?" Haymitch demanded from Fox. "She knows as much as I do. Her mission is to get Katniss and Peeta out of the arena – that's all. Nothin' more."

"Maybe."

"I _told_ you," Haymitch hissed, the annoyance was quickly catching up on him. "We - Johanna and I - will only be briefed when we reached District Thirteen. We never made it which means we got nothin' more to offer you."

"So we can kill you and her, and there won't be any loss to us?" Philo challenged.

"Like you ain't gonna kill us all later anyway," Haymitch sneered.

Fox grunted impatiently. "Why can't we all be friends, here?"

"Not when you're hurting mine," Haymitch growled. "What do you want with Johanna?"

"Information - rebel plans in District Seven. She's from Seven so she should know _something_. Hell, maybe she even organised the uprisings there before she was reaped. Really, Haymitch, if you just know how annoying all these problems in the districts are for us, you'd be on our side, too. What makes you people think you can rise against the Capitol?"

"You're either fuckin' blind or delusional, Fox."

"The Capitol's took care of me real good so far. I owe it to them to defend this peace," Fox peered into the glass wall, watching Johanna. He was a loyalist and it was clear where he pledged his allegiance.

"What happened in Seven?"

"At the moment nothing yet but there's been one or two _vocal_ individuals in Seven. Already been executed, of course," Fox answered in a tone similar to one would adopt when discussing the weather. "Same as we did with your rebel stylist."

"Cinna?" Haymitch startled. When Cinna failed to return after sending Katniss to the tube before the start of the Quell, Haymitch knew none of them would ever see him again. Those that disappeared in the Capitol, tended to remain gone forever but to hear confirmation of his death was still shocking. "His body… What did - "

Without warning, Johanna was screaming, raw and hoarse.

Haymitch pressed himself against the glass window helpless to do anything but watch as Johanna writhed on the floor in agony, completely drenched now. The water had been charged with electricity and Johanna was the perfect conductor.

"Johanna!" he pounded loudly but the glass held, not a single crack emerged. "Jo!"

Fox laughed, finding amusement in his reaction more than Johanna's pain.

"Call it off! Stop that fuckin' thing right now! You ain't even askin' her anything! You're just torturing her."

Fox moved blindingly fast and he slammed Haymitch's head against the glass window.

"Because that's what we do," he hissed in Haymitch's ear. "That's what we do."

"You're sick bastards," Haymitch struggled against the hold Fox had on the back of his neck. "Defending your precious Capitol doesn't mean _torturing_ people."

"But you are not people," Fox pointed out, "oh no, you're our enemy. See, that makes all the difference, Haymitch, makes it easier. Besides," he released Haymitch, "I can't call it off. It's not up to me, it's up to _her."_

There was a sickening crunch as Haymitch delivered a punch on Fox's face, landing his fist on the nose he had head-butted once before. Blood gushed out of it but Haymitch had little time to savour the satisfaction before Philo shoved him hard, making him crash against the window. Haymitch slid to the floor to the sound of Fox's mocking laughs.

Fox knelt next to him. When he spoke, he kept his voice low as if he was sharing a secret. "You can't save them all."

"I'll die trying," Haymitch spat.

He pushed himself up, turning back towards the glass window to see Johanna trying to stand up only to fall back again when the plug was turned on once more. Haymitch could hear the cackle of electricity somewhere in the room.

"How noble," Fox snickered but with a broken noise and the nasal voice, the condescending tone had little effect on Haymitch until he started talking about Peeta.

"If this is how you react to us working on Johanna, you'll love what we have in store for Peeta."

XxX

Without him realising it, his footsteps had slowed down.

Haymitch lifted his head, face up towards the sky. It mattered very little to him at the moment if the weather was synthetic and controlled because he was out in the open. He was breathing in fresh air, feeling the heat warming his skin instead of the biting, icy cold of the dungeon.

Philo grabbed his arm, pulling him forward in an attempt to get him to walk faster but Haymitch wrenched it free from his grip. He found himself in the back of a military truck and it occurred to him then that he was not going to be sent back to his cell. He was about to be taken someplace else.

It wasn't long before Johanna joined him. Her prison gown was dirty and wet, and she was shaking and trembling, hair singed and burnt; a smell that would become a phantom scent that would haunt Haymitch for days afterwards.

Philo and Fox discarded her on the floor of the truck without a backward glance and returned to their car parked behind the truck. The truck's engine started, jolting the truck as it began to move.

"Johanna," Haymitch knelt down on the floor of the truck. "Can you sit?"

He waited for an answer but all he heard was the chattering of her teeth and her shallow breathing. His fingers barely touched her arm when she reacted violently, baring her teeth and closing her fingers into a fist.

"Let go," she growled.

Haymitch slapped the hand she raised to punch him away from his face, pressed both his palms against each side of her cheeks to tilt her head up until she was looking directly at him.

"It's me," he shook her slightly. Johanna blinked, her dark brown eyes slowly focusing on him. "It's Haymitch."

"They're going to destroy my home," she let out a shaky voice. There was an edge to her voice. "Just like Eight… Katniss… She was there, Haymitch. I heard them talk. Coin sent your precious bird into a warzone."

His breathing thinned out and his hands dropped from Johanna's cheeks. If it was true and if anything happen to that girl and they lost the war, he would kill Plutarch himself for allowing such a thing to happen. He better had a good reason…

"They must have a good reason," he voiced it out loud.

Johanna scoffed. "I'm starting to believe we're going to die in here before we see the end of this fucking Rebellion," she muttered, pushing herself up slowly to her knees.

"Effie wouldn't allow anything to happen to Katniss," he found himself saying.

"Your escort can't do shit. You know that, too. You just don't want to admit that we're good as dead here and the cause that we've all pledged ourselves to, that we were so ready to fucking put our lives on the line for is doing one stupid thing every day. We're gonna die in here for nothing!"

Her laughs were all bitter and harsh.

"Shut up, Johanna," he spat.

They arrived not long later and once they were let out, Haymitch realised they were at another block just behind the Training Centre where Haymitch never had a reason to be at before.

"What do you think they're going to do?" Johanna asked, shivering in her drenched clothes.

She was hunched slightly, trying to mask the pain. Johanna was a strong woman, stubborn and head-strong. She was rude to nearly everyone she met and she had never bothered to filter her words when she talk – just like earlier - but for some reason, when either he or Chaff said something, she listened to them. The same way Finnick would, the same way Peeta and Katniss listened to him so seeing Johanna hurting this way made him uneasy, as if _he_ was hurting just as much.

They were similar in some ways, Johanna and him, so he knew that she would never seek or ask for it but they only had each other and if they were to die here in the Capitol's clutches like Johanna believed they would, they would still only have each other.

Haymitch shifted closer to her and drew his arm around her shoulder. She tried to take a step away but he was warm and she was by now, shivering like a leaf. Her skin had started to bruise in different places, her lips split and bleeding.

"Fox said something 'bout Peeta," he told her. "You okay?"

"I'm not going to drop and die here right now, if that's what you're asking," she shot back.

"Good. Don't give them the satisfaction," he nodded and after a while, he told her, "They made me watch when they electrocuted you."

Her eyes darkened and she grinded her teeth.

"Tried to tell Fox to make it stop but - "

"Yeah, bet that worked out nicely," she snorted. Johanna raised her head then, taking in the bruise on his temple, the dry crusted blood from when his head was slammed against the glass window and the stiff way he was holding his fingers. "You look like they roughened you up really good, too. I smell whiskey. He made you drink again, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You're going to die in that next withdrawal because you know that's where it's heading, right? All those drinks they're forcing down your throat its 'cause they want - "

"I know."

"They told me that's what they're going to do to you," Johanna clenched her jaws. "Right after they told me what they'll do to me. I don't care as long as they leave Annie alone. We can take this shit - you and I. We're strong and we're tough; tougher than Annie, at least."

He said nothing. He didn't know how long he could take this, or how long Johanna could or Peeta even but Johanna seemed like she desperately needed to give herself some motivational talk so he wasn't going to be the one to stop it.

"Jo," he squeezed her shoulder lightly when she stumbled in her steps. "Katniss will do all she can to get Peeta out. Finnick will do the same for Annie."

"So that'll leave you and me."

"Effie… Effie will talk to Katniss, get her to see that I didn't betray her like she and Peeta thought I did. When Katniss gets Peeta out, she'll get me out and I wouldn't leave you behind here, Jo."

"So everything is hinging on your escort talking to your girl?"

"Or she'll just order Katniss to make sure I get out when the rescue comes for Peeta," Haymitch smirked. "And I know Katniss - she'll make sure everyone gets home – including you."

"You have a lot of faith in Trinket. Didn't anybody tell you, Haymitch, it's cruel to make someone love you when you don't feel the same?" she gave an acerbic laugh, choosing instead to focus on Effie instead on the fact that Katniss Everdeen could save her.

Haymitch clenched his jaws and forced his feet to move one step in front of the other.

"Thought you were just using her for sex," Johanna mumbled.

He didn't bother to correct her. Maybe at one point that had been true. They might have both using it each other for sex but things had a habit of changing as always.

"Your boy..." she trailed off but there was some bitterness in her voice, the same tone she used when referring to Katniss as _'your girl'_. "You think he'll last? 'Cause he's the Mockingjay's damn husband, you'll be sure he'll get a hell lot more than us."

He thought he knew where the bitterness was coming from and he wanted to tell her that she and Finnick were his too but he elected not to. Johanna wouldn't appreciate any sentimentality. He didn't know when these kids became his responsibilities but it was too late to back out now.

"You'd be surprise. That kid's full of surprises."

* * *

 _You got Effie and Finnick last chapter, so in this, you get Haymitch and Johanna! Tell me what you think of their relationship, interaction or if they would help/save each other or if you think Johanna's pessimism and hopelessness will make Haymitch lose his own hope._

 _Since 2016 is in a few days, happy new year, hayffie fandom! i hope you'll have a bless and wonderful 2016 :)_


	9. Chapter 9

_Long chapter ahead!_

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

The hallways of District Thirteen were plenty and winding, and yet she could still crossed paths with Finnick who was jogging down one of the hallways towards the elevator dressed only in his hospital gown.

"Effie! Katniss has gone off. She was with Boggs. You're too late. Come with me," he insisted.

"Oh," Effie turned around and Finnick slowed to walk with her. "Where are we going?"

"Special Weaponry. Katniss told me that Beetee's designed a new trident for me," he grinned.

A trident or any other weapons for that matter was of no interest to Effie but still, she couldn't help smiling back at him. Given their situation, she would take even the smallest of happiness and the tiniest of smile, and if a trident could make Finnick's eyes light up, she wouldn't say anything.

"I'm sure it will be marvellous."

"I certainly hope so. Katniss seems very pleased with her bow. They wouldn't let you go with Katniss either, did they?"

"Oh, I don't think anyone thought of bringing me with them for that mission at all," she patted her headscarf distractedly. "They'll think I am more a burden than of any help to them. They'll probably be right. I wouldn't be of any use out there."

"That'll make the two of us. It'll be quite a story to tell Haymitch though had you gone with them to a battle zone. He wouldn't believe that you did," Finnick laughed and Effie did too.

It would be ridiculous and the first thing Haymitch would ask her would definitely be _"and, what'd you wear, sweetheart? Did you put on boots?"_

"I will have plenty to tell him as it is," Effie said, trying to keep light of their situation. "I can begin with how they made me change into this dreary uniform! My poor dress lies abandoned in my compartment."

The trident did its job distracting Finnick. He listened intently as Beetee explained its function and his fingers stopped its nervous tremors from not having a piece of rope in his hands. For the short time that they were in Special Weaponry, he did not mention Annie but Effie could certainly see the determine gleam in his eyes, as if the trident had given him some hope in getting her back.

Once word came in that Katniss and her crew had landed in District Eight, they relocated to the Command Centre. Effie had seen pictures of District Twelve flattened to the ground but to see a live feed of the destruction in District Eight was something else. It rendered Effie speechless. It gave rise to a new set of horror as she imagined the terrified women, children and elderly running for safety, and the men who died trying to protect their home. The heaps of dead bodies and scores of injured people in the hospital made her squirm.

Effie reached out for Finnick, seeking his support. He held her hand tight in his.

Cressida kept the cameras rolling and it was fed straight to the Command Centre. She filmed Katniss walking amongst the injured, shell-shocked and horrified.

"Are you fighting, Katniss? Are you here to fight with us?"

"I am," she answered. "I will."

Next to her, Coin smiled, satisfied. Finnick glanced over at Effie saying, "That's good, don't you think? It's working – putting her out there, it's working."

"This will be broadcasted to the Capitol, am I right?" Effie asked. Coin affirmed it with a nod. "Do you think they will see it, Finnick? Haymitch, Peeta, and Johanna, and Annie… Do you think it will give them hope knowing that Katniss is fighting back?"

"I don't know if they will and I don't know what it will do to them to see this but people out there in the districts and in the Capitol, they need to see this. It will unite the districts together. It's one step closer for us to getting them back. Katniss is showing the country the destruction the Capitol -"

The message that there were incoming bombers sent people scrambling in the Command Centre. Someone was saying that Snow must have seen Katniss landed in District Eight. Everyone's main concern was to get Katniss away from danger that no one thought she would run straight for it.

Over the intercom and in the hovercraft, all orders from Plutarch for Katniss to retreat fell on deaf ears.

"She is out of control," Effie heard Coin muttered. She didn't think she was meant to hear that.

Holding her breath, Effie watched Katniss took down one of the Capitol's planes and when Katniss stared directly at the lens of the cameras straight into the audiences with her face in a mask of anger, the fire burning in her eyes just the way Plutarch had wanted her to be in the studio the day before, Effie had to sit down.

"If we burn, you burn with us!"

Effie could feel the goosebumps on her arms. That was a message for President Snow, a threat and a promise to fight to the very end.

XxX

Being the escort to the Mockingjay, Effie thought the administration here would make an exception for her by excluding her from having to work but she was wrong. The hours needed for Cressida and Plutarch to edit the footage, Effie was in the laundry room just as her schedule dictated her to be.

 _Better laundry than dishwashing,_ she tried to keep her spirits up.

For the most part, she kept to herself not wanting to attract attention or cause any trouble but she could feel that someone was looking at her. Very carefully, Effie angled her body so she could see who the person was out of the corner of her eye. The woman had been glancing in her direction every so often that it was beginning to become tiresome, not to mention uncomfortable.

She approached the woman with her head held high but she was careful to keep a friendly smile on her face.

"Excuse me. Is there something you need, anything that I can help you with?"

Perhaps the woman just needed help but had no idea how to ask for it. _Some people are like that,_ she thought.

The woman raised her head, fixing her grey eyes on Effie. There was something familiar about her as if Effie had seen her somewhere before. The corner of her lip lifted upwards slightly into a smile.

"I'm sorry," she said dropping the clothes back to the basket and stuck her hand out to Effie. "I'm Hazelle Hawthorne. I didn't mean to stare but I wanted a word… I was just… not quite sure on how to say it."

"You are Gale's mother," Effie exclaimed in recognition. "You're also Haymitch's housekeeper. I think I've seen you at his house before."

"Yes, I am."

"You said you wanted to talk to me?"

Effie's tone was pleasant, friendly even. She wouldn't mind having someone to talk to. It would make the task at hand bearable and the time to move faster.

"It's about Gale. I think my son spends more time you than he does with me."

Taken aback at that unexpected remark, Effie said, "I'm sorry?"

"Gale is always with Katniss and Katniss is with you. What I meant is that I think you see him more than I do. It's just… I am worried about him. Is President Coin demanding too much from him and asking him to do something dangerous?"

"He… He does everything willingly, I think, out of a need to protect Katniss."

"My son has always talked about doing something. He never had that chance in Twelve but here, his life has meaning. I can see the change in him. He's away most of the time. We see him only during meals. I understand what he's doing is important, of course I do, and I'm proud of him. He just doesn't talk to me. He doesn't want me to worry but I do," she fretted. "How can I not? The least he could do is to tell me where he's going before he goes. I've only just found out he went to District Eight!"

Effie blinked and bit her bottom lip. She never imagined that she would find herself in this situation.

"I understand. I worry about Katniss, too," Effie sympathised with her.

"Do you? How can you understand a mother's worry? Katniss is not your daughter, it's not the same."

"She's as good as," Effie bristled. "I know what it's like to worry about someone. I worry about Katniss. I worry about Peeta and Haymitch. I _know_ what it feels like to worry about people you care about."

There was a critical look in Hazelle's eyes, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. " _You_ care about Haymitch? All I've seen you do was order him around. I heard that he was captured trying to save you."

It wasn't the accusation that she was bossy or that she didn't care about Haymitch that made her feel terrible. It was the _'he was captured trying to save you'_ that made her heart ached. Effie gave up all pretences of folding the freshly washed laundry. She had never seen it as Haymitch trying to save her. She had always thought that he needed her to be in Thirteen for Katniss and Peeta. After all, that was what Haymitch had told Plutarch and President Coin when he convinced them to get her. Whenever she replayed that fateful day, she had always seen her failure in reaching out for him, in going back for him. Perhaps if she had, things would be different now.

"I've never understood what he saw in you," Hazelle went on, dumping dirty clothes from the basket and into the washer. "He dreams of you. I heard him called out for you in his sleep once when I was there to clean. I never understood that; him calling out for a woman from the Capitol when he spent years ignoring his friends in Twelve."

"Were you friends with him?"

"Once, a long time ago. Why are you a friend of his? Why did he allow that to happen?"

It made her pause. She wasn't sure how to answer that question. They certainly did not start out as friends. If anything, she was convenient to him.

"I'm not sure what I am to him," Effie told her honestly. "But the Games, it is something difficult to talk about with someone who was never in it, nobody outsides it understand it like we do. Perhaps that was all there was."

Hazelle said nothing to that. She went back to her task quietly but Effie was unsettled by the conversation.

"Panem is divided into people in the district and people from the capitol but I believe the world is not divided into good people and bad people. In the Capitol, we've been indoctrinated since the day we were born to believe in the greatness of President Snow. We are not all bad. We were _taught_ to think that people in the district were bad. I've met people from different districts, people like Haymitch and Finnick, Katniss and Peeta, and Johanna. They didn't try to kill me in my sleep, not even Johanna who insults me every chance she gets. I was taught and I was told again and again that the district was a danger. I was taught to discriminate but I've learnt. This is a chance for everyone to learn, isn't it?"

"You reaped children," Hazelle pointed out. "How is that justifiable?"

"It's not," Effie spoke quietly. "It is my burden to bear for the rest of my life. I am trying to help Haymitch with this rebellion. People can change. I am not the same person I was twenty years ago."

"Something tells me that you are choosing sides, the side that will win. What if we lose this war? Will you tell the Capitol that you were brought here against your will? They will accept you back."

"The Capitol is not so forgiving. We live under a harsh rule, too, just like you. Haymitch was captured trying to save me," she repeated what Hazelle said. "I won't insult him by doing that. It is up to you if you want to believe whether or not I care for him but I'm not going to stand here and convince you of anything. If you trust Haymitch's judgment then perhaps - "

The propos from District Eight came on at that precise moment. She heard Hazelle's gasp when she saw the ruins in that district in the background. Even Effie who had seen the raw footage was awestruck by the editing. She could feel Katniss' emotions from her voice, felt the urgent need to do something and answer her calling.

"Haymitch's last advice to Katniss before she went back into the arena was for her to remember who the enemy is. _I_ didn't bomb that hospital. I'm not your enemy, Mrs Hawthorne, just as you are not mine."

"You keep a look out for my son as you would with Katniss. You get to sit in the meetings at Command which is more than I can say for myself. Please, if you can help – "

"I will try my best. I am nothing to the President. She would sooner get rid of me once the war ends just like everyone else."

With nothing else to say, they went back to their task until another transmission pulled them away from it. The Capitol was broadcasting this time and when Peeta came on screen, Effie staggered back. It was Hazelle who reached out and held her steady.

"They've starved him," Hazelle whispered. Starvation was familiar to her and she had seen enough people starved to recognise it.

Peeta had lost a tremendous amount of weight. The sight of him shocked Effie. There were dark circles under his eyes that the face powder failed to properly cover and the black suit he was wearing hung off his frame. His hand movements were slow and jittery. He was in pain.

"What have they done to him? My poor boy, my poor, poor boy," Effie took a step forward, covering her mouth with a hand.

Peeta talked about Katniss filming propos. He explained her actions by discrediting her, chalking it up to Katniss being used by the rebels and having no modicum of control over her actions. She wondered where he got ideas like that unless…. Unless he was talking about himself, too.

 _"…_ _stop the war. Do you really trust the people you're working with? Do you really know what's going on?"_

"That's the Presidential Mansion," Effie heard herself say, a useless piece of information she was sure. She didn't know why that was important or why that was the first thing out of her mouth.

The others in the laundry room had begun to whisper among themselves and giving covert glances in Effie's direction. She heard again the names they had been calling Peeta for the past days.

 _Traitor, traitor, traitor._

"He's being poisoned," Hazelle said. "They're poisoning his mind. That boy wouldn't be saying those things if he knew what we've all lost back home. "

That made Effie glanced over the shoulder to look at her. If Hazelle could see, why couldn't the others?

"Why aren't they trying to get him out? Or Haymitch?"

"Thirteen's been saying and telling me that it's in the plans," Effie told her. "I'm afraid we will lose Peeta if he's not rescued soon."

XxX

"Those propaganda shots are a mistake," Effie voiced out and the room promptly fell silent.

President Coin glared at her, furious that she would even dare to suggest such a thing.

She had opened her mouth so she might as well say what was on her mind. "We don't know what they will do to Peeta or the other Victors after Katniss' propos. _They_ are paying the price."

"This is a war, Ms. Trinket," Coin pointed out. "The purpose of the propos is to unify the district and I can assure you that it is working. District Seven has fallen and is under rebel control. Do you have anything substantial to contribute?"

Fuming, Effie sat back down. Her gaze lingered at Coin and then at Plutarch. Peeta's words echoed in her mind and she began to question herself. What if Peeta was right? Maybe he knew what he was talking about. Could she really trust these people? Could she trust Coin and Plutarch, and the soldiers in District Thirteen to keep Katniss alive and rescue the others? Or do they only care about winning?

The only person she trusted without question was Haymitch.

He was the one to send her here. He was behind the Rebellion and he must have known the people he was dealing with. So whether she liked it or not, she would have to hope for the best with these people.

Plutarch caught her gaze and it softened slightly. When Coin was done getting her updates and giving orders, he rose to speak.

"Madame President, Peeta's condition has deteriorated and till now, we do not know how the others are faring. It is important that we get him and the rest of the Victors out of the Capitol and back here in Thirteen. With them here with us, we can launch as many propos without having to worry too much of the consequences those propos might bring to _them_. My contact had recently seen them at the Tribute's Training Centre."

"Seen them?" Effie interrupted. It was bad manners but this was news to her. "The others are alive?"

"Yes," Plutarch nodded. "My contact spotted Haymitch Abernathy and Johanna Mason. That was all. I know nothing else."

Her head was reeling with this information. _He's alive. Haymitch is alive._ Her hands shook and she could feel the tears stinging her eyes. That was the greatest news she had heard since her arrival and the dread in her heart ebbed away slightly. _He's not dead._

"When were you going to tell me?" Effie confronted him.

"Miss Trinket, this isn't about you," President Coin told her off curtly. "The rescue plan is still in the works, Mr. Heavensbee. Now, it goes without saying that Peeta's recent interview should not be discussed with Miss Everdeen. We have reasons to believe that she has no idea of it and it will be best to keep it that way. It would destabilize her and we need her."

"With all due respect Madame President, I don't think that will be very wise," Effie argued.

"That is an order, Miss Trinket."

Plutarch and Coin was very good at withholding information and keeping people in the dark because Effie only found out three days later on the very day itself that Katniss was to be flown to District Twelve again for another propo. She was certain that her calling the propos a mistake was the reason she was not informed earlier.

"Be careful, Katniss," Effie told her as she carefully applied some light make-up on her. "Try not to run off like you did in Eight."

Maybe she was obvious and easy to read or maybe Katniss knew her well-enough by now, she didn't really know, but her constant, extra unbearable fussing over the girl must have given her away.

"You saw Peeta, didn't you?"

Effie startled but she admitted the truth. There was no point hiding. "I did."

"I thought so. You're mothering me like you're afraid of something…. that I'll be like Peeta?"

"I'm sorry," Effie stood back. She hadn't realised it until Katniss pointed it out. "He looks awful, Katniss, so awful and I just – "

"I know. Did Coin tell you not to talk about this with me?"

"I've been ordered not to compromise your ability to perform and that includes not upsetting you by talking about Peeta's propo."

Katniss nodded.

"I'm going to answer his propo today. I'll show him District Twelve. He will stop asking for a ceasefire if he knows what the Capitol did to us."

"Katniss," Effie laid a hand on her arm. "I'm sure Haymitch is looking out for him like I am for you."

"If he's still alive, he better," Katniss mumbled. "We made a deal to keep Peeta alive."

"He's alive. Him and Johanna both, Plutarch told me."

"Good," Katniss gave a curt nod. "Good."

* * *

 _The news from Plutarch came at the right moment before Effie completely loses hope. Remember that Haymitch and Johanna were out in the open in the last chapter when they alighted from the truck, so that's how they were spotted. I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter. Tell me what you think about the talk with hazelle or with katniss or effie standing up to Coin. Leave a review :)_

 _Thank you for reading._


	10. Chapter 10 (Part 1)

_Chapter 10 is a very long chapter so I divided it into two parts (like i'm prone to do if you know me by now) which is why you get a Wednesday mid-week update. The second part should be up as normal on Sunday. :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 10  
 _Part 1_  
**

The sun was setting down, swallowed gradually by the tall high-rise buildings of the Capitol. The only way one could admire the sun setting in this City was to get to an open space or a roof top. He remembered being there with Effie, not that they came up for the sole intention of watching the sun set, but he needed to talk to her away from the bugs.

"We inserted needles into your fingers, not your toes. Walk faster," Philo barked when Haymitch lingered behind, catching glimpses of the city from the windows. He wouldn't know when else he would get the chance.

"Annie? Annie," Johanna called out suddenly, stumbling in a bid to reach the door.

They let her in. Haymitch followed and once he was inside that was when he saw Peeta in the adjacent room, separated by a two-way floor to ceiling window, like he had been separated from Johanna earlier.

"Make yourself comfortable, it's going to be a long night," Fox grinned and beckoned the Peacekeeper who had a gun pointed at Annie's head out of the room.

Annie rushed towards them, pulling Johanna away from Haymitch's side to hug her fiercely. Johanna struggled and winced but eventually leaned against her. Annie staggered from her added weight so Haymitch carefully manoeuvred both women to the only bed in that room.

"You're bleeding," Annie gestured to his finger and his head.

"It's nothin'. I'm fine. Are you hurt? What did they want with you? What did they do to you?"

"They only wanted me here for Peeta. I don't know wh - what they're doing to him. Please, Haymitch, please help him. He makes me frightened."

There was nothing for him to do to help. He had an inkling that they were here to watch, just as he was made to watch Johanna.

"Johanna's been electrocuted multiple times," Haymitch told Annie. "You can smell it, yeah? The burnt hair?"

Annie nodded, her eyes darted from Johanna's hair to the bruises on her hands. She brushed her finger against Johanna's cheek only for her to jerk back, glaring at Annie.

"I'm fucking fine, Annie. You just got to open your big mouth, right?" she spat at Haymitch.

He ignored her. His eyes were trained on Peeta. He had no idea what was going on and he absolutely despised this feeling.

Peeta's eyes were unfocused and glazed, and from the moment they entered this room, Peeta had not even raised his head to acknowledge their presence.

"Why is he watching his first Games?"

"I don't know. They … They injected him with something. It made him scream. It made him mad and I think he's afraid. They made him watch things and he talks to himself," Annie hid her face on Haymitch's chest, whimpering quietly.

Nothing added up. Haymitch could make no head or tail out of Annie's account. He didn't even understand what Fox was doing with Peeta, whispering in his ears and pointing to Katniss on the screen where was sitting on a tree, sawing off a branch that held the tracker jackers' nest. That felt like a long time ago but it was vivid in his memory. He was sober and wanted nothing more than a drink. Effie was there. He recalled her sitting close to him, her arm pressed against his, her knee bumping into his.

He wanted her. He needed her here. He couldn't protect all three kids alone. He was tired, exhausted and in pain.

He wanted her warmth. He wanted to bury his face in her hair. He wanted a gentle touch; not one that would hurt him like Fox or a frightened touch in need of his comfort like Annie.

Knowing that this wasn't the moment to be weak he took a deep breath and shoved all thoughts of Effie aside.

They were there for a very long time.

Whatever Peeta was seeing, he saw it, too. Johanna and Haymitch glanced at each other as photos of Katniss' flashed quickly across the screen in random. What puzzled them was that between photos of Katniss, there were photos of the wolf mutt from Peeta's first Games.

Peeta's fingers clenched and unclenched against his metallic restraints and he was struggling, eyes bloodshot red and spitting mad.

"What the fuck?" Johanna cursed under her breath. She limped over to the window, trying to get a better look. "He's either fucking angry or scared as shit. I can't tell."

One second, it felt as if Haymitch had only just been recently transferred into this holding cell and the next, Annie told them they had been there for days. Haymitch refused to believe her. With shaky hands, she pointed out that the guards had changed shift several times and she had been watching.

"I think two days. They've given us food twice, too," she pointed to the two trays on the floor.

Whatever they were doing to Peeta, they had been going at it for as long as Haymitch was in that room with Johanna and Annie. They had taken breaks, of course, letting Peeta prowl the room but the boy had terrible tremors. Haymitch had mutely pointed to the floor, asking him to sit before he crashed.

They communicated with hand signals now since the glass window between them was soundproof.

During that time, Johanna's skin had turned blue and black. Haymitch's fingers had gone numb and slightly bent. Annie was growing more agitated with the state Peeta was in. Peeta's eyes were always unfocused. He was pale, had sunken cheeks and dark circles under his eyes.

Johanna joked that Peeta looked as bad as he did during his withdrawal. Annie didn't find that amusing at all. She pressed her face against Haymitch's shoulder and tried to sleep.

Annie wasn't like Johanna or himself. They had established that earlier and it was even more apparent by Annie's need to touch people to feel grounded. He learnt that when Johanna told him to put his hand on the small of Annie's back to bring her back when she slipped that one time, rocking back and forth, and blocking everyone out.

Haymitch sighed, sitting quietly with Annie nodding sleepy against his shoulder.

"I'll keep watch," Johanna nodded at the adjacent room where Peeta was. "You might as well sleep."

He must have dozed off at some point because when he opened his eyes, he saw Johanna on her feet, talking to Peeta.

"Peeta?" he jerked awake.

"They let him in," Johanna said with open mistrust. "Something's not right."

"Hey, kid," Haymitch approached him, ignoring Johanna completely. "You okay?"

Peeta stared at him.

"Haymitch... Haymitch," he mumbled and then he frowned, rubbing the heel of his palm on his forehead. "Katniss Everdeen..."

It was Annie who stepped forward and led him towards the bed where he sat, looking at each of them carefully. Haymitch knelt in front to him a small frown gracing his feature. It was the way Peeta had said Katniss' name - odd and confused, like it was an unfamiliar name on his tongue - that had Haymitch peering at him worriedly.

"They told you something about Katniss?" Johanna pressed for answer. "What is it? If it's got to do with the rebellion, tell us."

"Katniss... Is she - is she a good person?"

There was a startled exchange of look between him, Annie and Johanna.

"That's not a question I was expecting from you. Shouldn't you know that better than us, loverboy?" Johanna snorted.

"Is she, Haymitch?"

"Yes," Haymitch answered sternly. "What's the matter with you?"

"It can't be. It can't be. She tried to kill me. How can she be good when she tried to kill me? It makes no sense, Haymitch. It makes no sense."

Haymitch readily agreed with that assessment. Nothing made sense to him. Peeta repeating his words made no sense to him. Peeta acting as if he didn't know Katniss made no sense to him.

Next to him, Johanna was chuckling. "Your boy's losing his mind."

"Shut up, Jo. You're not helping," he snapped at her. "Listen Peeta, why are you actin' like you don't know her. You _know_ her. She's your - " he paused. "You love that girl. You told me that, you remember? You'd do anything to protect her."

"Do I? Love her, I mean. I'm not sure," he ran a hand through his hair, looking distressed. "I'm not sure - I'm confused. I - I shouldn't be trying to protect someone who's trying to kill me. I shouldn't. I'm confused, Haymitch. Why would I do that?"

"There's nothing for you to be confused," Haymitch growled. "Get a grip, Peeta! She's never tried to kill you. You came to me that night of the - "

"Time's up!" Fox sauntered into the room. "You like what we did to him? He's got a few more sessions to go - it's going to be great, just you watch. He's going to be a masterpiece."

"What did you do to him?" Annie asked quietly.

"Ah, Annie," Fox took a step towards her. "If I tell you, I'd have to kill you. I don't want to kill someone as sweet and as innocent as you," he chuckled and then he swooped down, kissing Annie on the lips.

Johanna swung her hand just as Haymitch pulled Fox off Annie which meant her fist connected with the side of his jaw. Laughing, Fox retreated towards the door, beckoning Peeta to come with him.

Peeta gave them a frightened backwards glance but he hurried after his captor when Philo raised his gun threateningly.

This happened a few more times over the next few days. Peeta would be taken away and then returned, and then taken away again. Each time he was gone, he came back even more unhinged then before, leaving Haymitch, Johanna and Annie helpless to do anything except to watch through the glass window.

"They're making him afraid," Annie commented as they watched the distorted images of Katniss appear once more. "He can't recognise Katniss when they've made her that way. You have to talk to him like Finnick does with me. Remind him of the Katniss that _he_ knows."

He took Annie's advice and decided to give it a try. During a rare night that Peeta was allowed to spend the night with them in the room, he started talking.

"Katniss Everdeen is seventeen years old, just like you," he spoke as he lay on the hard floor in the dark with his arms folded across his chest. "She was reaped for the 74th Games."

"By Effie Trinket... Is she evil like Katniss?"

"No. Let's get this straight, Peeta. Katniss is not evil. Neither is Effie - she loves you and Katniss both."

"She called my name," he argued. "She sent me here."

"The _Capitol_ took you and brought you here," Johanna muttered from the other side of the room. "You, me, Annie and Haymitch. It's not Trinket's fault."

 _Johanna Mason speaking up for Effie Trinket,_ Haymitch mused to himself, _never thought I'd see the day._

"You love Katniss - told me yourself that you liked her for the longest time but she never noticed you. That's why you wanted her to win the Games."

"But there was a rule change, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Haymitch answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. This was going to be a very long night. Digging up the past had never been pleasant in his experience.

"She... The berries - it was her idea. It was _her_ idea, Haymitch. She caused all these problems. It's true, isn't it? I saw it. I watched it."

"It's not like that."

"Stop lying to me!" Peeta shouted without warning.

It shocked not only Haymitch but Annie, too. Haymitch had never seen Peeta lost his temper, never seen Peeta like this. He propped himself on his elbow, frowning at the tone of Peeta's voice.

"Listen here, kid," he began only to thrown back, the wind knocked out of him when Peeta attacked.

"Twelve burnt! Twelve was destroyed and you didn't tell me!" he screamed, spittle flying everywhere. "They said you knew! They said you watched it just like I did and you must have seen it again through that," he pointed to the glass window, "and you didn't tell me about it. Not once. You're a liar!"

His fingers were in Haymitch's hair and his knee on Haymitch's throat as he pressed his body weight on it. Peeta grabbed Haymitch's head and slammed it on the floor. Hard.

Haymitch's vision was beginning to blur but he saw Johanna with her arm locked around Peeta's throat, trying to pull him away.

"Stop it. You're going to fucking kill him! Get off him, Peeta!"

 _Why is it always my head?_

That was the last thought he had before he blacked out.

* * *

 _Haymitch - everyone's punching bag (except Annie). On the bright side, all four of them are together, sort of._

 _Reviews will brighten up my day, so please leave one._


	11. Chapter 10 (Part 2)

_Here's the part two and there's a lot of things going on here._

* * *

 **Chapter 10  
 _Part Two_  
**

When he came to, Peeta was curled in a ball at a corner of the room. With a loud groan, Haymitch pushed himself up. Peeta's eyes tracked his movements before he looked away, wary and afraid.

"You might have a concussion," Annie told him. "I – I won't be able to tell until you're awake."

"I think I'm fine," Haymitch mumbled.

He gratefully accepted the glass of water Annie handed him and was careful to make sure he only had a few sips so that there would still be enough for everyone.

The back of his head was tender to the touch. Just when he thought he was slowly recovering from having his head slammed into the wall by Fox, he now had to deal with this. Frankly, he thought, if he didn't have a concussion from the repeated trauma, it would be a miracle.

His gaze fell on the new bottle of whiskey that had been delivered into their holding room. The bottles from the previous days were under the bed, not all of them empty but certainly had been opened and drank by him at some point.

Annie who saw what was holding his attention, pleaded like she had before, "Don't drink it, Haymitch."

"Hmmm," he grunted non-committedly. He scanned the room and that was when he noticed the lack of biting remarks and sarcasm. "Where's Johanna?"

"They took her." It was Peeta who answered. "They took her. Fox…"

Haymitch's immediate reaction was to turn his head towards the room where Fox had done his work on Peeta but it was empty and his stomach churned at the thought of Johanna being back at the Training Centre, electrocuted repeatedly for answers.

"When was this?"

"A few hours ago," said Annie.

"You could have stopped me earlier," Peeta voiced out suddenly with an edge to his voice. "You didn't stop me. I – I don't know… I don't know what's gotten into me. I didn't mean to – What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me, Haymitch?"

Peeta sounded so small like a lost child and he looked like it with his arms wrapped around his knees, rocking back and forth.

"I don't know," Haymitch told him truthfully. He got up from the bed and made his way over to Peeta where he settled down next to him. "They did somethin' to you. That's obvious. You know it, I know it. We just don't know what exactly it is but it messed up you in some ways."

"Yeah," he agreed. "I – I don't feel right."

"Tell us about yourself," Annie added helpfully. "You can talk to us."

Haymitch nodded in agreement, "go on. Tell us something."

"Talk about what? I don't know -"

"Tell me your name for starters," Haymitch shrugged. "That's got to be an easy enough start."

There was a long pause as Peeta thought it over.

"My name is Peeta Mellark," he began slowly. "That's Annie Cresta and you're Haymitch Abernathy. We're in…" he glanced around. "We're in the Capitol. My home – I live in District Twelve but there is no District Twelve now."

Peeta looked up for confirmation.

"Fire-bombed, yeah."

Flashes of Twelve burning broke into the forefront of Haymitch's mind and his hands shook. He reached out blindly to his right until his hand closed around the neck of the bottle and he took a swig, forcing his body to relax.

"I was a tribute in the 74th Games and during the Third Quarter Quell where I was with… I was with Finnick, Johanna and Katniss. Katniss was there… Midnight," he gasped suddenly. " _See you at midnight._ She never came back and then – What happened to your fingers?"

Haymitch frowned at the abrupt change of topic. Peeta must have noticed the awkward way he was holding on to the bottle.

"Can't feel my fingers much," Haymitch muttered.

"Did I do that?"

"You didn't. It was Fox. He needed somethin' from - "

 _Speak of the devil,_ Haymitch scowled as Fox slammed the door open.

He had Johanna propped up and was dragging her limp body into the room. When he released her, Johanna crumpled unceremoniously on the floor like a rag doll. They all stared at Johanna, bald and bruised, and once again completely drenched.

"Shaved off her hair," Fox explained casually. "The smell was starting to get to me. Your turn Peeta, come on. Haymitch has been talking to you, hasn't he? And that's not good. He's interfering with our work trying to reconstruct your old memories like that. Oh," Fox added with a high note, "got some people you might know."

That was when Haymitch and Peeta both noticed Darius standing next to a female Avox. When Katniss and Peeta first arrived at the Penthouse, they had said her name was Madge which Haymitch knew not to be true.

"What do you need with them?" Haymitch asked once he recognised them.

"Peeta's new cell mates. Say goodbye to your friends now, Peeta, you won't be seeing them anytime soon."

XxX

The room where they worked on Peeta before remained empty but Haymitch figured he was nearby the area because they became very familiar with his screams, day after day, and night after night.

Annie asked repeatedly what was happening but Haymitch had no answer for her. Johanna's condition was slowly deteriorating as Peeta's had, and he was helpless to do anything about it. Haymitch saw the way the muscles on her calf contracted involuntarily, an effect of the multiple electro shocks. She had been on the bed for hours now. Neither Annie nor Haymitch trusted her to walk without collapsing.

"They've got to do something in Thirteen by now," Haymitch muttered.

"They backed out, chickened out probably – District Thirteen," Johanna said. "Or we're worth nothing to them anymore."

It was late at night - it had to be because Annie and Johanna were both asleep - and he had volunteered to take watch if only because it meant he could have a drink or two without them looking when Philo came for him.

Haymitch went quietly without a fight, glancing back one last time at Johanna's and Annie's sleeping forms.

"You're her mentor," Fox snarled into his face. "She trusted you so there must be something you know that you're not telling us."

"Katniss doesn't know anythin'. We agreed not to let her or Peeta in on the plan, not with Snow watching."

"So you're telling me that she had no idea she was to be what they're all calling the Mockingjay? That she was supposed to fight a 'rebellion'? I find that difficult to believe."

Haymitch shrugged. "She had no idea what she did when she raised those berries during the 74th Games. She had no idea what she started. We saw the potential she has, we seized it. She's different – that girl. She's the fire we needed but she doesn't know the effect she has on people. She only wanted to safe her sister. That's all."

Fox sneered. "What else then?"

"Snow ain't happy, is he? Told her to do everything she can to shut the districts up. She did. That girl played along. Peeta went along when he knew. Got fucking engaged just to please everyone, didn't they? It wasn't enough. The Quarter Quell happened then to teach us all a lesson. We ain't stupid. We know what the Quell was all about. Katniss still knew nothing. Might have suspected somethin' was wrong at some point but I said nothin' to her. Nothing about Thirteen. She only wanted to save the boy. You kill him, you'll turn her even more against you," he added, an attempt at trying to keep Peeta alive for as long as he could.

"She's already against us from the start. In fact, she was in District Eight this afternoon. Took down two of our fighter planes herself. Made a grand speech about it too, calling for everyone in Panem to stand together, threatening the Capitol. Your girl's fighting back, Haymitch, and you must know this was going to happen. YOU MUST KNOW!"

Fox's loss of control at the end had no effect on Haymitch. His mind had latched on to the fact that Katniss was in District Eight. It wasn't part of the plan. Katniss wasn't supposed be in any of the districts. Her safety was important to the Rebellion. They would try to keep her safe and alive as much as possible. Everything she was supposed to do to help the cause was to be done underground in District Thirteen.

What was it Fox had said? Katniss made a rallying call. She went out to District Eight to rally the fighters. They had taken the propaganda acts out there.

His face betrayed nothing.

Whatever and however the propos were done, it was happening. Thirteen was delivering what they promised they would do.

XxX

The next time that Haymitch saw Peeta, it was from a hologram in his interrogation room. Fox had allowed him to watch the interview which he said was done in the Presidential Mansion and Annie was there too with Peeta, for encouragement.

Peeta looked even worse than before. Wearing a black suit, he looked thin and sickly. His fingers were idling on a white rose as he spoke to Caesar Flickerman. When Peeta began to address Katniss, imploring her to think about the people she was working with and if they could be trusted, Haymitch pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

If they were ever rescued, if they ever made it to District Thirteen, he was worried of how Thirteen and President Coin would view Peeta or worse still, he wasn't sure if any rescue would be attempted now when Peeta had publicly questioned them.

Peeta wasn't the only person the Capitol targeted after Katniss appeared in District Eight with her propos. Johanna bore the brunt, too.

District Seven fell into rebel control soon after. Johanna was tortured for hours, accused of masterminding the rebel's attack in District Seven before she was reaped. Haymitch feared for her life.

Physically, she was nothing like the girl he knew. The gown hung off her frames, her ribcage jutted out from the thin cloth and she wasn't taking in any food. She couldn't. She threw up even if they tried to give her water.

She requested and demanded for his alcohol to stop the pain but he flatly refused. He didn't think it was wise to give it to her. She accused him of being selfish for wanting to keep it all to himself.

Being imprisoned and tortured was slowly getting to each of them. Their argument lately was vicious and brutal, and Annie was screaming her head off, caught in the middle of both Johanna and Haymitch.

The Capitol was not oblivious to this and Fox made use of it.

"You know what you're doing here, don't you? You must know," Fox said during one of Haymitch's many interrogations.

Haymitch said nothing. He hasn't been speaking for days now. His silence had driven Fox up the wall which gave Haymitch immeasurable satisfaction even if it means he was battered and bruised.

He continued staring at the palm of his hands, picking off dead skin and rubbing the dirt while ignoring the question entirely.

"I'll make a bargain with you. You tell me what's going, the plan and people's role in it – Johanna, Peeta, Katniss and Plutarch Heavensbee - and I'll see about getting you out of here."

Haymitch blinked, surprised by the turn of events. He wondered if Johanna had been offered the same. Fox saw that he had his attention and went on trying to win him over.

"You don't want to spend the rest of your days, the rest of your life here. You want to get out, don't you? You want to be free. You don't want to be in this war. You don't want to choose sides. You want out. Drink as much as you like without worrying when I'm going to put a stop to it, meet some woman and maybe settle down, have kids. I can give that to you. I can talk to the President about it if you cooperate with me. Think about it, Haymitch. Think about what you're sacrificing by being quiet, what you're giving up and what you can get by working with me. I want you to really think about it."

Haymitch did. He sat on the chair for a long time just thinking.

He wasn't stupid. If the Rebellion failed, the Capitol would kill him before they let him walk free. To President Snow, he was too dangerous to be allowed to live.

If the rebels won and that was a big _if_ to him, he might be dead before they get to him. The circumstances were leading to him not having a very high survival rate from all the beatings his old body was forced to endure.

He might still have a chance now if he were to accept Fox's offer. He was sure the Capitol intended to use him to show Panem of another cooperative Victor. He had refused to let the Capitol use him once so was he going to stoop that low just because he was imprisoned, tortured, starved and made to watch his friends suffer?

 _Take it,_ a voice whispered. _You'll live. You can't do this anymore. You can't watch Peeta and Johanna and Annie suffer. Take it and get out._

Haymitch gritted his teeth and pinched the flesh of his palm so hard he left nail marks on it. He couldn't do that to any of his kids. He couldn't abandon them just like that and Effie…

What would Effie say? She was in Thirteen with Katniss and if she was doing what he intended her to do, then she was there looking out for Katniss. He was supposed to look out for Peeta. She would expect the same from him. She would despise him. He can't live with that.

He was stronger than this. The Capitol could take everything from him but he still had his honour and his dignity, and Katniss was fighting back. She was fighting back. He shouldn't give up _his_ fight.

"Go fuck yourself," Haymitch muttered.

He didn't expect to be shot. Haymitch recoiled from the force of the bullet entering his shoulder.

"I'm not giving up on you, Haymitch," Fox chuckled, slipping his gun back into the holster. "You think about it, like I said. If you don't want to cooperate, it'll be a bullet to your head the next time, but for now… Well, maybe being in withdrawal will give you some motivation. Cut off his supply," he barked at one of his subordinates.

They still wouldn't let him die from the withdrawal, it would seem. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not. They would make sure he suffered until he caved in.

"They're starting it?" Johanna asked when their single tray of food was delivered without any bottle of whiskey to go along. "Cutting you off?"

"Yeah," Haymitch nodded.

He tried not to move so much because his shoulder was aching beyond belief. In fact, his entire body was in pain. He wasn't breathing right. He thought maybe he might have broken a rib or two from the kicking Philo had given him the day before.

Annie sat next to him. She couldn't lean against him or rest her head on his shoulder so she just sat next to him, humming under her breath when they were suddenly plunged into complete darkness.

"Power's been cut off!" they heard a Peacekeeper yelled.

He saw Johanna's silhouette moving towards the door and he heard the knob turned.

"Thought I'd try," she muttered.

"We're completely cut off," they heard. "No power, no electricity!"

 _District 5 – Something must be going on in Five._

"You sure we can't make a run for it?" Haymitch pressed.

"The door isn't working. You want to try breaking that glass window?"

"Maybe they're coming for us," said Annie hopefully. "Maybe Finnick is here. Katniss, too. This is a distraction."

"I'd like nothing more than to believe you, Annie, but I ain't holding my breath," Haymitch said, pushing himself off.

He threw himself against the glass panel and crumpled from the pain. The gunshot wound radiated from his shoulder to his arm and chest, the throbbing pain from his sides intensified.

"Did it at least crack?" he wheezed.

"Don't know. I'll try," Johanna said and failed just like he did. "I wish I have my fucking axe!"

"You scream any louder and they'll come for us. Shut up, Johanna."

They were using the bed to try and break the glass window down when the lights came back on. Haymitch saw the small cracks and he thought, given a little bit more time, they would have succeeded.

Instead, they had Philo sneering down at them when he understood their plans. "That was pathetic," he laughed cruelly. "Peeta's at the Mansion, getting ready for another interview. President Snow sent his invitation to the three of you. Get up now."

The last thing Haymitch expected was to come face to face with President Snow. When the three of them was escorted into one of the many rooms in the mansion, Snow was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed in front of him. On the table before him was a spread of food, a feast. Snow gestured for the three of them to take their places.

"Don't do anything," Haymitch muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Johanna because he was trying to quell the urge to attack Snow himself.

He wanted very much to lunge across the table and stab the president with that butter knife lying at the tip of Snow's fingers but to do so would be suicide. There were too many Peacekeepers for him to not get shot.

"Join me – make yourself comfortable. Have something to eat," Snow gave a crooked smile, "or drink."

Driven by the sudden extreme thirst to have alcohol in his system, Haymitch's feet led him forward. He reached out for the wine but Johanna pulled his hand away.

"Don't," Johanna stopped him, glaring at Snow. "It could be poisoned. You - "

"President Snow," Caesar interrupted, "we're ready."

Peeta looked ill at ease behind the camera. His eyes flickered from the screen to them sitting with President Snow surrounded by Peacekeepers and he recognised the threat.

"Peeta, the people of Panem deserves to know of the attacks and the reports we've been receiving from Peacekeepers fighting bravely to keep the peace in the districts," Caesar began. "Tell us a little about it."

Peeta's physical transformation was so drastic there was no way people in District Thirteen could miss it. It was good, in a way, that Peeta was appearing on television because it would give Thirteen a chance to see how different he was from the first time he gave an interview as compared to now, and Haymitch hope they were smart enough to know that Peeta had been coerced and send in a rescue.

"… of the savage attack on the hydroelectric dam… in District Five. I'm begging for restrain and decency – "

 _"… strung up a man, they said who murdered three."_

Haymitch wasn't expecting that. Nobody was expecting that. His chair scraped noisily as he stood up shocked to see scenes of Katniss in the ruins of District Twelve interspersed with Peeta's interview. Peeta himself had lost his focus, distracted by the thought of Katniss watching his interview.

Haymitch understood what it meant. Somewhere in District Thirteen, Beetee was interrupting the Capitol's broadcast just as they had talked about before. They had planned this and Thirteen was seeing it through.

"Katniss, are you there?" Peeta breathed, hopeful.

Caesar called his attention back, trying to control the Capitol's broadcast once more.

" _… the dead man called out for his love to flee."_

Peeta's eyes widened and he leaned closer to the camera as if he could reach out and touch Katniss. Haymitch took a step forward but a Peacekeeper pushed down on his injured shoulder, forcing him to his seat.

Peeta ignored everything else. His entire focus was on the camera pointing at him. He stared into it and when he spoke, it was clear he was addressing Katniss without anyone prompting him.

"No one can survive this. No one is safe now, not here in the Capitol, not in any of the districts," Peeta said and then his face hardened. "They're coming, Katniss," he told her as the Peacekeepers rushed forward, "and in District Thirteen, you'll be dead by morning!"

The cameras cut.

Peeta fell to the floor, taking blows after blows. Johanna was quick to grab the butter knife Haymitch saw on the table earlier and stabbed it on the hand of the Peacekeeper holding her down.

"What the fuck does he mean?" she screamed.

"That's a warning," Haymitch said, recognising it for what it was even as he was slammed to the ground when he tried to get to Peeta. "He's warning Thirteen."

"They're going to kill everyone," Peeta was screaming. "They're going to kill everyone in Thirteen, Haymitch! Everyone will be dead! Bombed and buried! Everyone will die!"

 _Effie,_ he gasped, trying to fight his captors off. _Effie._

* * *

 _So let me know what you think by leaving a review? Can you feel Haymitch's despair throughout the chapter? His desperation? His worry for Effie now in Thirteen? I hope you liked part two :)_


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Silence hung in the air seconds after Peeta's announcement. Katniss stared at the screen in horror with her hand pressed against her mouth. Peeta's words took a second to register in Effie's mind because his appearance shocked her more than anything but when someone's voice broke against the sudden commotion, asking "is that a threat?" she pulled her gaze away from the screen.

"He's telling us we're about to be attacked right here in Thirteen," Plutarch countered. "Are you prepared for an event of an attack?"

Coin, surprisingly, looked mildly offended by the question than worried. "Of course we are. We have security drills in place. At any rate, we are overdue for a Level 5 security drill."

 _Due for a security drill?_ Effie thought shrilly. _An attack?_

Looking around at the flurry of activities, she felt even more lost and the sense of dread rose like a bile in her throat. She tried to get to Katniss but Boggs had already led her and Finnick out of the room.

Hurrying towards Beetee who was struggling to maneuver his wheelchair with everyone running around and ignoring him, Effie asked, "What did Peeta mean?"

"My best guess is a bombing... or bombings," Beetee told her, finally able to reverse his wheelchair after Effie shooed people away. "Best not to think too much about it - could be nothing after all. I can use your help, let's go."

Without being asked, Effie grabbed hold of his wheelchair and started pushing him down the corridor towards the disabled access route the soldiers were pointing at. At the end, the corridors converged. Streams of elderly and injured residents joined them.

"We are going to be bombed?" Effie lowered her voice, not wanting anyone in the vicinity to panic. "The Capitol wouldn't do that," she insisted with a sense of urgency. "There are citizens here. They wouldn't. It is simply barbaric."

"The Games are barbaric," he calmly pointed out. "You've realised that already so the sooner you accept that the Capitol play by no rules except its own, the better it will be. Listen, Miss Trin - Effie, we don't really know each other well but Haymitch sees something good in you and I've seen you standing up for Katniss and those captured in the Capitol again and again to know that you are on our side. Perhaps you still want to hold on to some desperate notion that the place you were born in could not be that terrible and inhumane but they did burnt Twelve to the ground and bombed the hospital in District Eight, so why wouldn't they attack Thirteen?"

"I - "

"To be honest with you, I don't know what Peeta really meant by it but it shouldn't be taken lightly. If you eliminate all other possibilities, an air assault is the only logical means of attack left. Thirteen is underground. It'll be easier to bomb us from up in the air than to send their soldiers on foot to attack Thirteen which would be unwise, not to mention a fatally flawed plan. There's nothing we can do right now except to follow evacuation protocol. I'm sure Thirteen is prepared for this."

"You are not inspiring confidence," she pursed her lips. "You said it yourself. Thirteen is underground. If they bomb us - "

Her breath caught at that thought. They were already so deep underground, deeper than Effie had ever been in Thirteen and they were all still moving. It was possible, she thought, that the Capitol meant to suffocate them all underground. Cut them off from resurfacing again. They would die suffocating or from starvation eventually. She wondered if they had enough food supplies to last until they could all dig their way out.

 _Stop. Stop it! You're thinking too much,_ she chided herself though she was paralysed with fear.

Beetee must have heard the hitch in her breath because his wheelchair came to a complete stop.

"Don't think about it. It might be a scare tactic - a whole load of horse manure."

She gripped the handle of the wheelchair tighter, forcing herself not to have a panic attack. They followed the crowd before the hallway spilled into a large holding room. Effie stopped, staring at the mouth of what seemed to her was a huge cave reinforced with steel doors.

"Are you sure it's safe?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Beetee answered and she smiled a little at his attempt to make her feel better.

At the entrance, before they could make it in any further, a soldier stopped them. "Your compartment number, please."

"F - 2187," Effie told him as Beetee gave his.

Effie raised her wrist and waved her scheduled in front of a scanner. The machine beeped and she was accounted for.

"Effie Trinket...?" the soldier looked up for confirmation and she nodded. "Yours is to the left and sir, please follow my colleague - he will assist you."

"She can come with me, can't she?"

"No, sir, 'fraid not. Each compartment has been assigned a bed and in an event of further evacuation, priorities are given to the disabled, elderly and the children, so you will be in a different area."

"It's okay," Effie assured him, trying to sound brave. If she wanted to believe that she was brave enough to go through this, she should act like it. _Chins up, smiles on._ "Thank you for the thought, Beetee."

XxX

Effie made her way to the assigned bunker and stood in front of the bare mattress with her hands on her hips.

"That won't do," she muttered to herself.

She searched under her bed for something, anything that could be used to cover the mattress when she saw the Bunker Protocol. She gave a quick glance and hurried over to join the queue of people that had gathered behind one of the counters for the residents in the F Compartment. She received her pack, set up her bed and settled down on it. She read the Bunker Protocol once more, just to be certain that she had everything she needed.

Satisfied, Effie glanced around, watching those who just arrived and was beginning to settle and those who like her were just waiting for the next set of orders. She smoothed out the thin sheet covering the mattress under her and took deep calming breaths.

 _It'll be fine. You'll be okay. Just a Level Five security drill - nothing more. Just an exercise of precaution. You'll be fine._

The sudden cessation of the siren made everyone pause. President Coin's voice cut through the intercom with the first announcement of the day since the security drill was set in motion.

"This is not a drill," she began and Effie blinked.

She thought it was a drill. She thought... Unless…. Thirteen's systems had picked up something that confirmed an attack.

"Less than an hour ago, Peeta Mellark made a televised announcement of an attack to District Thirteen. I urge you to remain calm and to await further instructions. There are first aid stations situated in every bunker should you require medical assistance."

All those little talks she had in order to convince herself that it was just a drill had been for nothing.

 _This is real. Thirteen's going to be attacked._

Effie was not prepared when the first wave of bombs hit. The impact was so strong she thought the grounds had shattered but the floor held. There were no cracks but it came again and again, and the place shook so hard she could feel it in her bones. She screamed just as others were and grabbed the metal bar of the bed to steady herself, holding it for dear life.

The lights flickered and the overhead lamps swayed dangerously.

She was terrified. Gone were all pretences she had about being brave. She was so, so terrified it's surprising she hadn't wet herself and it only grew worse when all the lights went off. It was pitch black and she couldn't see anything.

Not once in her life did she ever thought that she would find herself in a situation like this and nothing could prepare for the sheer terror she was feeling. The helplessness she felt sitting in the dark all alone while the place was being bombed was not helping either.

Effie glanced up.

They were far underground, deep in the belly of the earth that if the surface didn't hold, it would cave in on them and trap them. She swallowed. Haymitch had told her about the mining incident in District Twelve and she couldn't help the morbid thought that everyone's fate here could very well be like theirs.

This must be what the Capitol wanted; to kill Katniss Everdeen the same way her father was killed; to bomb her to death so there would be no more Mockingjay and no more war.

As if those thoughts weren't terrible enough, another invaded her. What if those bombs were designed to penetrate below the surface? She would be blown to smithereens. _This_ wasn't how she imagined herself to die. She didn't want to go like this. She always thought it would be from something mundane like dying from old age.

"Apparently, Peeta Mellark's information was sound and we owe him a great debt of gratitude. Sensors indicate the first missile was not nuclear, but very powerful. We expect more will follow. For the duration of the attack, citizens are to stay in their assigned areas unless otherwise notified."

That was hardly reassuring at all. This was already horrible and now, they were being told that there would be more.

Now that the bombs had stopped raining and they were given some reprieve, Effie stretched out on the bed. She clasped her hands together, pillowed them under her head and turned on her sides, staring into nothing. She forced her body to rest and her mind not to think of where she was and what she was facing.

It was an impossible task but after minutes, her thoughts drifted off from being trapped alive underground to Haymitch. Her eyes fluttered close. She imagined Haymitch next to her, holding her like he had held her as she lay awake at night worrying herself to death when Peeta and Katniss were sent back to the arena. He wasn't one to offer words of comfort but he was there and his presence had been enough for her. She imagined him with his arm around her midsection, her back against his chest and his rough stubble occasionally brushing against her bare shoulder. She missed his weight on her, the smell of whiskey on his breath and cheap soap mingling with faint sweat on his skin.

She wanted him. She wanted him back now more than ever. She didn't want to die alone and she didn't want him to die alone and in pain in prison.

Effie remained curled on her bed, eyes shut, hands trembling in fear as the second wave hit. It was shorter than the first but still, equally just as bad.

There was a long period of inactivity following that. She kept waiting for the next attack but it stretched for hours and it never came. Yet, they were still not given the clearance to leave and just when Effie thought that perhaps, that was all there was to it, another missile hit.

The Capitol was spreading its attack out, prolonging it and playing games. There was no urgency to this. This was as much a psychological warfare because there was a fight outside, and she was here just waiting for her death that could come at any moment if the bunker collapsed.

She couldn't stay here. It would drive her crazy. Effie wasn't one to sit idle when she was half mad with worry so she got up, swaying on her feet as the bunker shook and made her way until she reached a place where a crowd had gathered.

"Do you need medical assistance?" someone approached her, waving a flashlight from her head downwards to her toes for a better look. "Are you injured?"

"N – no, I'm just… I can't stay and wait. I – Is there something I can do to help?"

"I understand but… do you have any medical training?"

"I don't. I'm afraid I don't know how to treat anyone. It's – We've been here for two days and I – " she broke off when someone's flashlight fell on something in the distance, allowing her a better view. "Your supplies are in a mess. I can organise that and make things more efficient."

"Uh," she glanced back at the supplies that had clearly been rummaged through in a hurry to attend anyone who was wounded, "well okay. Okay go ahead. If anyone needs anything, they'll usually shout to ask so you just have to hand it to them."

"Do we see major injuries?" Effie asked out of curiousity.

"Not many. We have engineers all across the bunkers and after each wave, they go around making sure the beams and the structure will hold and if anything that needs fixing can be fixed, they do it. So sometimes, we get injuries. Someone cut his finger to the bone earlier from the rocks over there," she raised and beamed the flashlight over an area where cracks had appeared. "Most of the time, we get people who's afraid and anxious and needs to be calmed down with medicines, children especially."

Effie worked quietly and she tried not to work too fast. The supplies weren't in such a terrible state of disarray so she could likely finish organising in less than half an hour but she took her time. She separated bandages, gauze and plasters, and arranged whatever medications there were in alphabetical order. Here, she was surrounded by people who had to be brave and who had to smile reassuringly at those who came so as not to spook the others and she found that uplifting to her spirits.

"How long more will this go on?" one of the medics asked.

"Haven't heard anything in a while – no news from the President," another answered.

"Has this happened before?" Effie asked.

"Nothing as massive as this. We had a Level Three security lockdown a few years back during the time of the pox epidemic. Everyone was quarantined for fear of the disease spreading," the medic explained and Effie wondered how an epidemic could be classified as _'nothing massive'_ because to her it sounded like situation involving life and death, just like this. "That went on for about two weeks… three maybe? My memory's a little hazy now. I was just a child back then."

"Two weeks?" Effie gasped. _I can't be here for two weeks!_

"Yes," the medic nodded. "I supposed we are in war and these kinds of things are to be expected."

One thing Effie was not expecting was the calmness that woman possessed because Effie was struggling every hour that she was here to keep her composure.

"What I don't understand though, is Peeta Mellark… You know him, yes?"

"I – Yes, certainly," Effie nodded. "I'm his escort… I was his escort. He's good boy, a very nice young man. What you're seeing… The Capitol – "

"What I'm seeing is that he doesn't look like he's on our side. It's gotten some people very confused. During an interview once, he said he married Katniss Everdeen but some people here said it's a sham for the Games. Still, I'd thought he'd be on _her_ side, you know? Instead, he's been calling for a ceasefire and that warning? That was what the President said…. That he made a televised announcement of the attack. I don't know if it was a warning or he was in on it."

"What do you mean?" Effie asked sharply.

The medic shrugged. "Guess he's tired of calling for a ceasefire so I've been thinking – and I'm sure lots of other people are too – that an attack on us will easily end things. Supposed he wants that?"

"He'll be sorry to know we don't cave in that easily!" another medic added angrily. "We're not afraid!"

 _You've been living underground for the past 75 years,_ Effie thought with irritation, _sounds a lot like you are all afraid._

"None of you were there when Peeta came on air," Effie frowned. "I was there. I watched it. I _saw_ it. That announcement was never part of the script. Trust me, I have been in show business for a better part of my life now," she added, coming off haughtier than she intended. "I know when things are unscripted. He was never supposed to let us know of it. It was most definitely a warning; a warning that came from him and he – he took a beating for it. The cameras caught it. The blood – there was blood…"

Effie closed her eyes. She could still see the floor splattered with Peeta's blood.

There was silence following Effie's outburst.

"I don't know…" the medic shook her head. "I really don't know what to think."

"I trust him. His warning saved us. That's what I'm going to think about when I sleep at night – that Peeta Mellark saved my life," Effie said.

XxX

There was hardly any time to rest once the bombings ceased and everyone was given the clearance to leave. The schedules on their wrists were promptly updated and daily activities resumed as normal. People returned to work in the kitchen and laundry room, at the hospital and armoury, and in Effie's case, she reported herself to the Command Centre as ordered to discuss matters concerning Katniss Everdeen.

"It goes without saying that another propaganda shot has to be done," President Coin said.

"I have been thinking about that," Cressida stood up. "The Capitol would have no doubt by now, disseminate the information to the entire country that Thirteen was bombed. People are going to wonder how we fared; if we're still here, if we still exist, and if Katniss is still alive. We should put those questions to rest, tell them Thirteen is alive and well."

"Yes," President Coin assented. "See to that."

Cressida nodded. She stood up to leave, giving Effie a lingering look as she passed. She was expecting Effie to follow so they could get Katniss to get her ready but Effie wasn't done. There were still things that had not been addressed.

Plutarch beat her to it. He brought up Peeta Mellark and the rest of the Victors in the Capitol.

"It will be too costly," President Coin dismissed his concerns with a wave.

"Too costly?" Effie hissed and without realising it, she was on her feet, staring at President Coin. "I have been told on numerous occasions that a rescue attempt was being planned and it boils down to that? It's too _costly?_ "

"Miss Trinket, this is beyond your capabilities. This is a matter of tactics and strategies which is, I'm sure, not your area of expertise," President Coin told her in a condescending tone. "Please sit down."

"With all due respect, Madame President, perhaps the very fact that I am not an expert at war tactics and strategies gives me the ability to see things from a different perspective, a much more _human_ perspective," Effie countered tersely.

She remained standing, refusing to be deterred.

"However, since you'd rather assess situations through a tactical point of view, consider this: if Peeta Mellark whom the Capitol had put on air multiple times looks like that," Effie gestured at the still image of her boy during his last interview before the warning was given, "then one really should wonder how the others are. There is absolutely no need for them to look presentable for the cameras which means, their situation could be much worse. How long do you expect them to last? How would _their_ deaths affect Katniss? These are all people that Katniss knows. You will lose her."

"Effie's right, I'm afraid. How will District Seven react to losing one of their own when it is within your power to save her?" Beetee jumped in, strengthening Effie's argument by giving it a broader scope than just focusing on Katniss. "You've just got District Seven."

"Rescuing them will be a tactical advantage to you," Finnick added quietly. "Think about it. You have three victors here already. There are four more in the Capitol and if you get them here, that's seven victors. Seven victors on your side is a powerful thing, Madame President, especially if one were to take into account the other victors we've let fall into Capitol hands and publicly executed. Sure, they may not all be in on the rebellion but with a dwindling number of victors left in Panem, having seven standing right behind you is a statement worth making against Snow, isn't it? You have to act now."

Having picked up the unspoken threat, Effie shot Finnick a look. If Coin were to rescue Annie and the others, he would be wholly on her side but otherwise…

"Surely, the advantages outweigh the cost? Please," Effie turned her gaze towards Coin. "You cannot wait until Peeta's on the brink of death before you rescue him. You cannot wait until President Snow makes a show of publicly executing Haymitch, Annie or Johanna just as he had done with the other victors he arrested from the districts."

"We owe Peeta a rescue," Finnick continued where Effie left off. "His warning helped, didn't it? You managed to evacuate everyone in time. It helped."

"Absolutely," Boggs agreed. "Every second counts when you're under attack."

Coin pursed her lips, not at all expecting her second in command to readily agree with Finnick.

"We will have another meeting to discuss on this issue once more. For now, as suggested earlier, send Miss Everdeen out to film her. Get the message out to the Capitol today," she ordered with a note of finality.

In the end, the white roses on the ground and Katniss' complete meltdown became the deciding factor. It reiterated Effie's point that Coin might lose Katniss without Peeta around.

Still, the scene took everyone by surprise, especially Effie more than anyone else.

It was Haymitch that Katniss sought when she needed comfort because they understood each other. It was always Haymitch so when Katniss turned around after seeing those roses and blindly reached out for her, Effie was stunned but she was quick to pull the girl to her and embrace her.

"Effie," her lips wobbled. She gasped, forcing air down her lungs and trying hard not to let the tears fall. "Snow… Snow will make sure his life is worse than death. He won't kill Peeta. He won't kill Peeta but – but… I can't. I can't, Effie. He's going to – He's hurting Peeta to get to _me._ "

"Shh, shh," Effie rubbed her back in soothing circles. "That's not true, Katniss, that's not true."

"It's true. Of course, it's true. Peeta wouldn't… Did you see how weird he acted? What are they doing to him?" she dry heaved. "If Haymitch has someone who loves him and someone he loves, Snow will do the same to him. He – He can't use Haymitch on camera like Peeta because there's no one – there's no one - " she tried to explain to prove her point. "Johanna, too."

Her heart ache for Katniss and over what Katniss had said.

"Haymitch loves you and Peeta, too, and the two of you love him. Annie hasn't been seen on screen either, Katniss," Effie tried to soothe her. "They would try to hurt Finnick with her, don't you think?"

Katniss seemed to consider this for a moment and then she shook her head.

"It's different. Finnick's not the Mockingjay. I can't do this anymore. It's my fault. I'm the Mockingjay – it's my fault! I shouldn't - "

She slumped against her and Effie staggered back from the unexpected dead weight. When she raised her head, she saw Plutarch taking a step back holding a syringe in his hand.

"She needed to be calmed down."

XxX

"It's a risk we have to take," Plutarch rubbed the back of his neck. "I will lose a few contacts but I've spoken to them and it can be done. Theirs covers will be blown, yes, that's true but I have it on good authority that if we want to get them out, we have to get them out _now_."

Gale raised his head with a question. "Why's that?"

"They are all being held at the Training Centre which is easier to break into than the secure prison at the Pod where they were held previously. Besides, Haymitch, Annie and Johanna are detained in a room together which makes extracting them easier. We only have to break down two doors – theirs and Peeta – instead of four."

"Where's Peeta held?" Boggs interrupted.

"On the same floor as them," Plutarch brought up a hologram of the Training Centre and with a red laser, showed them the area, "which wouldn't pose too much of a problem. We have to mount a rescue attempt as soon as possible. We need Katniss to perform and I am under the impression that she cannot do what is required of her when she is constantly worrying of the repercussions her every action has on Peeta."

"Fine," Coin said, finally convinced. "The need for a rescue far outweighs the cost of it but due to the dangers of this mission, it will be on volunteer basis only."

"I'll go," Gale raised his hand without hesitation. He was the first to step up which Effie thought was an honourable and brave thing to do though now, she was wondering on how to break the news to Katniss.

"If you will, Madame President, I'll lead the mission," Boggs stepped up.

There were seven in all together, mostly soldiers from District Thirteen with the exception of Gale which meant that they were all unfamiliar faces to the four victors. As they rose to leave, Effie raised a tentative hand.

"Where the four of them come from, it would be good, in my opinion, to have someone familiar on board the hovercraft after their rescue. If I had – If the Capitol had captured me, hurt me and if a group of strangers were to get me out of there and into their hovercraft, I would panic. I would still think I am in danger. I just – someone they all know should be there to talk to them and assure them that they are safe. Haymitch is the only person who knows Gale, the others don't."

"So who are you suggesting, Miss Trinket?"

Effie glanced around the room, looking at all the faces of the people present in the meeting. It was an unfair question from the President. She had said it was to be on a volunteer basis only and yet, here she was, asking Effie to give names.

"I should go," Effie said in the end. "I have no military training like the rest of them but every one of those people you are trying to rescue knows me. I admit, Annie may not be very familiar with me but she had met me once. I just need to refresh her memories. I can – I will stay in the hovercraft and I'll be out of everyone's way. I will be there only as a source of comfort – nothing else."

Effie could almost hear Johanna's derisive scoff in her ear if she were to hear that.

"I will personally ensure that each of them is sedated and unconscious until we reach District Thirteen," Boggs told her kindly. "Don't worry about them attacking us or putting up a fight, Miss Trinket. Aside from her family, there are not many people that I've seen Katniss spent her time with. You happen to be one of them. She would need you here. Thank you for your bravery," Boggs smiled.

Effie swallowed and nodded, accepting that decision.

"Please bring them home safe," she whispered.

 _Please bring Haymitch back to me alive._

* * *

I hope you saw that Star Wars reference! I couldn't pass up the chance. I feel that the theme of this chapter had a lot to do with Effie + bravery. There was Effie forcing herself to be brave, standing up to argue with Coin for Haymitch, Peeta, Annie and Johanna with the back up of Finnick and Beeta which requires some gut, and then being brave. What do you think of this? Please leave me a review!


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

It started as it always did; with his thoughts racing in every single directions. He couldn't stop thinking. His mind conjured up all the worse possible scenarios, he began doubting the Rebellion and ever seeing the end of the war, the 'what ifs' haunted him and he lay awake at night unable to even shut his eyes.

Having already experienced it before when Peeta threw away his alcohol after the Quell announcement and again when Fox forced him into a withdrawal, Haymitch would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid.

There were a million different thoughts and voices fighting to be heard. He paced the cells, lost in his own world in an attempt to block everything out. He was tired and all he wanted was a good few hours of sleep.

He must have managed a few minutes of sleep, surprisingly, because he woke up feeling disoriented. He blinked and sat up, looking around him.

"Where are we?" he asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

Johanna frowned. "What? You've gone mad or what?"

"Where are - Why are you here?"

"He's confused." Annie whispered at Johanna. "I think it's part of the withdrawal, too."

"Go back to sleep, Haymitch, before you fucking lose your mind and forget us all. Peeta's already on his way there, we don't need that from you."

A day after Peeta's televised warning, Fox had sauntered into their cells to inform them that the air assault on District Thirteen was going as well as can be expected. There were more missiles to be launched.

"He said the missiles leave giant craters on the ground," Annie said.

Fox told them a couple more things which Haymitch caught as he slipped in and out of sleep. His anxiety had doubled without the alcohol and news of Thirteen's bombing did nothing to soothe his nerves which in turn made the thoughts in his head worse.

 _Effie is dead._

 _The Rebellion is over._

 _I won't see Effie. There is no body. She's been bombed._

 _Katniss is dead too, just like her._

 _The Capitol has won._

 _They're going to kill us._

"Stop it," Johanna gritted her teeth. "Stop it! Keep your thoughts inside your head. Don't be so damn vocal about it. You're scaring, Annie."

 _There's no reason to fight anymore. Dying is a way out._

"Don't you see, Jo? Nobody's coming to get us out anymore," he rasped, his eyes were hazy in his delirium. "No use fightin' - we're all dead. I don't mind dying. I can't go through this. Not again. Dying is a better option," he gave a crooked smile which vanished instantly when Johanna punched him in the face.

"I don't want to hear that kind of bullshit coming from you. You hold on as long as you can. You understand me? Are you listening, Haymitch!?"

He grunted under his breath and turned away from her.

Following that exchange, Annie spent hours staring at the wall, muttering Finnick's name. She believed, just like Haymitch, that everyone in Thirteen was dead.

Johanna was not so easily swayed and had not given up that quickly. She was the only one left in their room who was still rationale. At first, Haymitch didn't understand how she could still go on and then it dawned on him. She had no one in District Thirteen the way Annie had Finnick and the way Haymitch had Effie and Katniss. She could emotionally detach herself just enough to keep on fighting for the three of them.

"You're starting to look yellow, you know?" Johanna sat at the edge of his bed.

"Yeah?"

"You're not allowed to give up," Johanna shoved his shoulder roughly. "You don't give up on us."

"You're not very good at this pep talk," he retorted. His face was pale, his lips chapped and Annie kept saying she was afraid he would die. "Fucking terrible bedside manners, too."

The hours when his thoughts kept him awake at night, Haymitch spent it listening to the occasional Capitol planes flying overhead towards District Thirteen. The soldiers' chatter gave him information he wouldn't have known otherwise. The planes were loaded with missiles and when it returned later, the Justice Building in District Thirteen was no longer standing. Haymitch wondered how many more had died there. To them, the people in District Thirteen were just nameless and faceless people but not so much for Haymitch. Finnick, Plutatch, Katniss and Effie were there and they were all people he knew.

It made him afraid so much so that the fear bled into his nightmare and grew into an angry manifestation of Effie.

 _"_ _You sent me here, Haymitch," Effie accused him with half her face gone, torn off by shrapnel. "_ You _sent me here to die."_

"No, no, Effie. Please. I didn't know. I didn't – "

Haymitch thrashed violently against the bed. His back arched as his fingers curled. The blanket was yanked from him and someone was pushing his shoulder down into the mattress.

"Get off," he blindly tried to strike and defend himself. "Get off!"

"You're having some sort of seizure or muscle spasms. I don't fucking know but I'm not trying to hurt you. Stay down - you'll break your back."

His breathing was labored but he forced his body to relax back on to the bed. Annie was there, too, rubbing his arm soothingly.

"Cold," he muttered, shivering like a leaf. "Cold."

He was covered in cold sweat, his skin glistening under the dim yellow light of the room. His muscles were aching everywhere and it felt as if he had exerted all the muscles in his body when all he had done was stay in bed for days from the sudden lethargy.

"It's only going to get worse. It's been three days. You still have a long way to go," Johanna informed him.

He screwed his eyes shut. It felt like a lifetime and he wasn't sure if he could last through the withdrawal.

"Will he make it?" Annie asked, her gentle voice washing over him.

"He better."

Restless and ill at ease, Haymitch got off the bed with the thin bed sheet wrapped around his torso. It was noisy in his head like a million drums beating out of tune. His throat was parched and he was craving not only for liquor but for so many other things. He thought his body was trying to compensate the lack of liquor with food.

The pacing went on until finally, he slid against the wall and sunk on the floor.

"Get Fox," he told Johanna. "Get him. Tell him I'll do anything. I just need a drink."

Johanna scoffed. "You sound weak."

"Just one, Jo. I'll feel better. It'll clear my head and I – I can think again," he gritted his teeth.

"Haymitch," Annie approached him, "you and Johanna went through worse than this and you didn't give in. I – I think this is what he wants from you. Don't let him win. That's what you always say – don't give them the satisfaction."

Haymitch let out a breath. The exhaustion and lethargy was still very much present, and his bones felt heavy like lead so he relocated back to bed. He stayed on that bed for hours when the guards came for Johanna.

He felt sick because when they came, he couldn't even fight them off for her. He couldn't protect her. They waited until she returned, weak and bruised, and Haymitch let her have the bed.

"Are they still attacking Thirteen?" he asked, holding on to her hand. Johanna hadn't fought him on that which was testament to the pain she was in, he thought.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly. "Wanted to know about Thirteen's nuclear launchers. What do you think?"

"They're afraid that Thirteen might use it. Did you see Peeta when they brought you to - "

"No."

"They can't have all died in there," Haymitch tried to reason. Perhaps he was trying to convince himself; perhaps he was still in denial or perhaps, he just needed to believe that Effie and Katniss were still alive. "If they're dead, we'd be dead, too. If the Capitol's won, they wouldn't have gone after you."

"They're still bombing. They haven't won," Johanna countered. "They're all cowards. They're scared to do anything more than an air assault cause they know nothing about that district. Could have accidentally set off a nuclear bomb, who knows? Maybe that's why they still need me. The Capitol can still use us. That's why we're still alive."

"Which means Finnick could be dead," Annie covered her face. "They're only keeping us alive because they can use us."

"He's not dead, Annie," Johanna snapped. "You know who's dead? Those two avoxes from Twelve's Penthouse. Saw some guards… dragging their bodies out of Peeta's cell on my way back here."

Haymitch pressed the heel of his palms against his eyes. He knew Darius and as an Avox, there was nothing he could have said to his captors. Darius was there for Peeta.

"They were murdered in front of the boy?"

"Looks like it. I saw their bodies – it's not pretty."

Johanna shuddered at the memories.

"Thirteen isn't - " he stopped abruptly.

His face changed and he clutched his stomach as he leaned forward. Haymitch vomited. The smell of bile made Johanna curse. Annie rushed forward, brushing his hair away from his face while rubbing gentle circles on his back. The muscles in his stomach contracted again and he threw up.

Heaving, Haymitch closed his eyes, remembering all the time Effie had held his hair back.

"Your body's cleaning out. You vomited a lot the last time," Annie spoke to him.

"It's hot," Haymitch announced. "Can't you feel it? It's hot."

They stared as Haymitch began pulling on his shirt, tearing it away from his skin. He tossed it over the corner of the room only to jerk forward, crawling to pick up again and wiped his face with it. He was perspiring profusely but when he glanced back at Annie and Johanna, they were not. He was the only one.

Johanna rolled her eyes and flopped back down on her back. "In a few hours, he's gonna say he's cold."

"He's hot, Johanna," Annie told her, crouching next to Haymitch with her palm on her forehead. "He is burning up."

Johanna scooted to the further end of the bed nearest to the wall to make space and Haymitch collapsed next to her.

"Don't throw up on me, old man, or I'll murder you in your sleep," she threatened.

He chuckled. "Can't do it when I'm awake, can you? Pathetic."

There was nothing else to do except to wait him out as he ride through his withdrawal. Annie was awake for hours checking up on Haymitch and Johanna, her fingers hovering inches from their noses to make sure they were breathing and alive.

Annie told him that she estimated it had been four days since his last drink and the withdrawal was getting more intense as the hours went by. At some point, Johanna had moved away from the bed, dragging Annie with her and refused point blank to let Annie anywhere near him. He had asked why when he resurfaced from one of his hallucinations and it turned out that he had mistaken Annie for Effie. Completely unaware of his own strength, he had pulled Annie to him, hugged her tight and nearly suffocated her.

He whittled away the hours in the prison room from one nightmare to the other, battling hallucinations and delusions, trying to tamper his mounting panic and anxiety over things beyond his control. He mumbled and muttered, shouted and screamed, and thrashed on his bed.

Weaved into his dreams were the loud clanking of the guards' baton against the door followed by an angry shout.

"Shut him up, bitch," one of the guards snarled.

"Yeah?" Johanna argued. "Come in here then and make him, see if he doesn't choke you to death. He's not very aware of his surrounding, can't tell what's real and what's not. Hallucinations, you know? He said the walls' been painted with pink polka dots and it's hideous, his words not mine. Hell, he saw an ant and insisted the floor's crawling with a whole army of them. It's all fucking hilarious until he began to think there are mutts from his Games in this room. I'd like to see him think _you_ 're a mutt and snap your tiny neck."

"I'll kill him."

"Not if he kills _you_ first," Johanna snickered. "He thinks everyone's in Thirteen's dead. He doesn't have anything else to lose."

The guard left and Haymitch's condition worsen. The muscle spasms were irregular but it was still a problem to him. His muscles were often sore because of it. The tremors were severe that the bed shook and the guards would bang his baton against the door as a warning. The nausea was still very much present.

"Jo," Haymitch moaned one afternoon, clutching his stomach with his face pressed against the thin mattress. "Fuck… Fuck… Where are you?"

"What's wrong? I'm here. What the fuck's wrong?"

"Get me painkillers. Ask them for it… Morphling… Give me morphling."

"Wait," Annie grabbed the sleeves of Johanna's tattered gown. "I don't think that's a good idea. What if he gets addicted to that? One addiction to another…"

"He's in pain. What if he dies? We can't let that happen to him, Annie."

"But…"

Haymitch groaned loudly and vomited on the bed.

"Dammit, Haymitch!" Johanna cursed. "Now you've soiled the bed. We only have one of this."

"I need those fucking medicines, Jo," he shouted. "You won't ask Fox for a glass, you won't ask for medicine. Why don't you just fucking kill me already, huh? I tried … I tried to protect you and you can't even - "

"Maybe I will if you're going to act like a child. I'm not Peeta. I'm not going to baby you!"

The door slammed open and the guard stomped inside the room.

"I told you. If you don't shut him up, I will," he growled and grabbed the front of Haymitch's shirt, delivering an upper hook across his face.

Haymitch tried to push him away, tried to fight back but the blows kept coming and Haymitch thought his skull might fracture and he would eventually die.

 _Finally_.

He closed his eyes, weakened by all that he had gone through. Haymitch stopped moving.

XxX

He was aware of the pain before anything else.

His face was throbbing and when he tried to open his eyes, the simple act of blinking hurt. The paid radiated down his cheeks which by now were swollen and crusted with blood. His vision was blurry and he imagined, one of his eyes was swollen shut.

Slowly, he became aware of Annie's soft hand brushing his hair away from his face.

"Please don't die, Haymitch. Please don't leave us," Annie whispered repeatedly.

"N – No," he mumbled through cracked and split lips. "I'm … here."

He heard her sob of relief when she realized he was awake and he squeezed her hand, hoping to impart some comfort on the distraught young woman.

"I'm scared. I've been on my own. Johanna's unconscious and you haven't been awake since yesterday."

Haymitch swallowed and even that was painful for his jaws and neck.

"Too quiet… Why?"

"I – I don't know. There's nobody here anymore except us. I think … I think Peeta is still in his cell. I hear him sometimes but he's been quiet, too. I haven't seen any Peacekeepers or guards. I think they're all gone."

That was strange. Had they evacuated the building and left the prisoners behind to die? If that was true, the only reason they would evacuate was if the Capitol was about to fall. His fingers twitched. _Are the rebels here?_

"Did they leave us here to die?" she asked. "We're going to die like Katniss and Finnick…"

"Are they dead, Annie? That's real or … Or in my head?" he asked with a deep mistrust. He couldn't even rely on himself for the truth. "I saw Effie die. I saw her … Half of her face… She didn't have a face. Blown off… Did they show it to us? Did we watch the bombings?"

"Don't you remember? They made us watch. They kept dropping bombs."

"Thirteen is underground… They have to be safe," he tried weakly.

Haymitch gritted his teeth and the pain shot through his skull. The frustration was driving him up the wall and the fact that he couldn't tell if he had really seen Effie die or if that was just something he saw as a result of his withdrawal was making him stir crazy.

"I don't know," Annie cried, pressing her face against his chest. "I'm scared. I want to go home. I want to go home to Finnick. I don't –"

Annie shot up and glanced around. Her eyes were wide with fear as it tracked the smokes seeping into the room.

"Cover your mouth and nose! Don't breathe it in," Haymitch ordered. "Annie, no! Don't go – "

But she had already darted off towards where Johanna lay unconscious on the floor and covered Johanna's body with hers.

Before he could cover his mouth and nose, he heard a small explosion went off. The door swung inwards and there were tiny red dots moving all around the room. It was familiar. It felt like he was a target. He tried to place it but his mind was not working as well and as fast as he wanted it to.

"We've got three here!" a shout went off.

A hand fell on his shoulder and Haymitch jerked away, trying to shrug it off. It was a fruitless effort because the man had more strength than Haymitch, and he found himself being pushed on his back. He stared at the figure hovering next to him.

"Two identities confirmed – Annie Cresta and Johanna Mason," someone reported.

Panic rose in Haymitch's chest. Whoever they were, he couldn't let them hurt Annie or Johanna. He reached up and grabbed the man's neck, but the man easily overpowered him.

"Calm down. You must be Haymitch Abernathy. We were informed you'd be with them," he nodded at Johanna and Annie. "I need you to confirm you are who you are. Your face is a downright mess, man. I can't tell."

"Who're you?"

He didn't recognize them. They were not dress in Peacekeeper white. They were in black from head to toe and carrying guns that were unlike those that were issued to Panem's peacekeeping force.

Someone came into view and Haymitch's grey eyes met his.

"It's him. It's Haymitch Abernathy. We've got them all."

"Okay. Good. Right, Haymitch, I need you to relax. My name's Boggs. I'm from District Thirteen. We don't have much time so you need to cooperate. Everything will be okay."

"N - No," Haymitch pushed the hand holding the syringe away. He didn't want to be drugged. "No. Don't fuckin' lie to me. Thirteen's been bombed. This isn't real. I'm dreaming this."

"I'm from District Thirteen. My district is still standing," Boggs repeated. "Hey, hey, look at this - "

He reached under his vest and pulled something out from the pocket of his uniform. It glinted even under the poor lighting.

"You recognize this, I hope. She told me you would."

"Effie," Haymitch breathed, reaching out for it. "That's… It belonged to her. How did you get it?! What have you done to her? Where's Katniss?"

"They're both safe. Effie wants you to know that she's waiting for you. She wants you to know that you can trust us. She wouldn't have given this to me otherwise would she?" the man spoke to him as he slipped the gold bangle around Haymitch's wrist.

It was a distraction because Gale Hawthorne – Haymitch finally placed the familiar face to a name – plunged a needle in his neck.

"Effie... Effie…" Haymitch whispered before he lost consciousness.

* * *

 _There you go - the rescue :) haymitch is in the middle of a withdrawal, trying to battle, among other things, reality and delusions. how will he react when he sees Effie? tell me if you like this chapter!_


	14. Chapter 13

_This one's a long chapter so don't get bored of reading it half way thru!_

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

An offer for them to be sedated while the rescue was underway was on the table. Plutarch had the notion that it would be easier for them and when the suggestion was made, Katniss, Finnick and Effie glanced at each other.

Katniss gave a firm no while Finnick shook his head before going to back to his earlier position, lying sprawled on his stomach with his face pressed against the pillow. Effie pursed her lips.

"That will not be necessary, Plutarch. We will wait. There could be news trickling in at any given moment and I'd rather not miss it."

"Very well. Though, I must say, waiting is not an easy task," Plutarch told her kindly, a rarity in itself, "especially not when - "

"I am fine at the moment but thank you. You don't have to - "

"I need to do something," Katniss interrupted. "I can't just sit here waiting to hear if they died."

Next to her, Effie bristled. She had carefully avoided thinking of the possibility that the rescuers could die during the course of their mission or that they might be too late and the prisoners were already dead.

"Don't say such things," Effie told Katniss off, a little harsher than she intended.

"If you are up to it, there is something you can do, Katniss. I have been mulling it over and I believe a distraction will be perfect. Beetee can air it in the Capitol, something to divert their attention while the rescue is carried out."

A brief flash of alarm crossed Effie's face. "If a distraction is required, it means …"

"Oh, there is absolutely nothing to worry about, Effie," Plutarch was quick to appease her in a tone that was far too jovial to suit the current mood in the hospital. "The rescue plan has been carefully thought out and we have all been through it multiple times. Beetee constructed it himself. Although to be honest, the plan is rather difficult to follow. I've been assured that not being able to fully grasp the plan, is a good sign. It means the Capitol will have difficulties understanding it, too."

"If you're trying to comfort me, you are doing a rather poor job of it," Effie pointed out.

"Can't blame a man for trying, can you?" he flashed Effie a smile. "Now, Katniss, if we can divert President Snow's attention away from the rescue team to you, it will be to our advantage."

"That's a good idea," Finnick chimed in with a little more energy than before now that there was a possibility of having something to do.

"It has to be riveting," Plutarch added, "something absolutely interesting that nobody can look away. It doesn't have to come from Katniss..."

"No," Effie responded quickly because she understood what Plutarch was hinting at. She crossed her arms. The nerve of that man, she fumed, demanding such a thing from Finnick when he already was in such a fragile state of mind.

Finnick glanced at her and she knew he was seriously considering it.

"No, Finnick, you don't have - "

"I have something... Something riveting enough. I'll do it. Put _me_ in front of the cameras after Katniss."

As they walked out to meet Cressida and her team, Effie did consider that she might be a little too overprotective, but Katniss and Finnick were safe here and it was her duty to make sure they remained that way. She couldn't protect Haymitch or Peeta or Johanna but with Katniss and Finnick, there was something that she could do.

Effie tried once more to dissuade him moments before he took Katniss' place but Finnick was adamant and Effie could do nothing but watch, biting her lip anxiously as the story unfold. When he began to name names - people who bought him, the district slaves - Effie's eyes fluttered shut. Some of the names were familiar to her, prominent members of society who did not even bat an eyelash at the abuse, people who partake in it so blatantly.

"People need to know. It's been hidden for so long," Plutarch reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"We allowed this to happen," Effie whispered, "right under our noses."

"Not anymore. This war will end and things will change. The system _will_ change."

"Do you really honestly think so?" she quirked an eyebrow.

Having worked with President Coin, she was starting to think that the quest for power made leaders very similar to each other; Coin could be just as terrible as Snow when she finally sit on that throne. She never raised her misgivings before until today.

Plutarch fixed her with a curious look. Something flickered in his eyes, and she wondered if he had thought of the same before.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Finnick. There are things he said that even I am unaware of!"

Katniss wandered over to her, taking the place Plutarch had just vacated.

"Do you know about this?"

Effie was about to answer when she paused, thinking of Katniss' impression of her for knowing and saying nothing. It couldn't be worse than the thought Katniss had when they first met; the escort who reaped children from her districts, the woman who nearly sent her sister to the gallows.

"Yes, I knew," Effie confessed, "though not in this great detail. Some of what Finnick said… It's the first time I'm hearing it."

She expected a judgment. She expected Katniss to look at her differently but the girl kept her gaze firmly ahead. Katniss wasn't in a hurry to get away from her so they stayed above ground for a little while.

"Could this have happened to us? To Peeta and me?"

At some point after they had won, Haymitch had talked to her about this. They had discussed the possibilities because they needed to be prepared in case it happened and they needed to be prepared to break it to Katniss and Peeta but still, the question caught her off guard.

"Haymitch didn't think it would. The love story he spun for you and Peeta, afforded the both of you some security. You have to thank him for that, Katniss, because the people in the Capitol would have loved to have you and Peeta, the way they had Finnick."

" _The whole world wants to sleep with you..._ " Katniss whispered. The phrase now had a more sinister meaning to her. "Johanna said that the first time we met her after the Parade."

"I heard from Haymitch," Effie nodded. "President Snow would not have sold either of you, not when you are supposed to be in love and to belong solely to each other. It wouldn't do for the star-crossed lovers to be seen with different lovers every other week."

"Did it happen to Haymitch after he won?"

"Haymitch? Oh, no," Effie shook her head. "President Snow had no one to use against him for him to be submitted to such… to such treatment. You heard Finnick. You are defenseless when your loved ones are defenseless. The Capitol had no leverage against him."

Effie knew the question was coming before Katniss asked, "Where is Haymitch's family? I don't remember any family of his. Not even as I was growing up."

"Haymitch's family…? Well, they are right here," Effie beamed at her. Katniss' question was personal in nature and it was _his_ story. It wasn't her place to tell so she settled for something easier. "You and I are all he has left."

"And Peeta, of course."

"And Peeta," Effie agreed.

"They're using Peeta against him, too," Katniss gasped when the realisation settled on her. "In prison... They must be – You said that Snow had no leverage against Haymitch but you're wrong. He had none until... until Peeta and I came along."

XxX

What followed after the interviews was an hour or so of Beetee attempting to wrestle control of the Capitol's broadcasting system and the Capitol trying to keep up the pretenses that everything was normal. Finnick's account of the Capitol's atrocities and Snow's secrets alternated with the Capitol's usual afternoon news broadcast.

Effie watched everything quietly from her spot until Beetee eventually relinquished control.

"If they're not out of there by now, they're all dead."

That was the second time that day that someone had planted the possibility and likelihood that Haymitch and the others might not be alive. It made her feel sick to her stomach. She left the place.

Since she was not allowed in Command and had no desire to linger around Special Defense like Katniss and Finnick, she returned to her compartment after letting Plutarch know where she would be.

In a gesture that was highly uncharacteristic of her, Effie collapsed on her bed without first cleaning her face or changing into fresh, clean clothes. Every last nerves on her body were frayed, not to mention that she was tired and bleary-eyed from the lack of sleep. She had not been sleeping well since her arrival in District Thirteen. She suspected that the drastic change in environment was a contributing factor, though her constant worry for the safety of Haymitch and Peeta in the Capitol and Katniss' role as the Mockingjay was the huge reason behind it, too.

She just needed to rest. She just needed to lie in for a few minutes or so, relieve the pressure on her feet and take a breather.

 _I will sleep when this over, when Haymitch is safe and Peeta is back with us._

Her hand went to her wrist, something that she now do for comfort, only to feel nothing there. No gold bangle. Her breath hitched until she remembered that she had given it to Boggs in the hopes that it would find its owner again.

 _It will. Haymitch will be fine. He'll be insulting this custom made uniform you've painfully put together in no time._

The concept of time changed radically as she waited anxiously for news. Twenty minutes felt like two hours, and two hours seemed to drag forever.

Effie missed dinner and fell into a light sleep without truly intending to. She woke up feeling disoriented when her roommate came in and still, there was no news. To clear the fog in her mind, Effie found things to do. She organised her wardrobe which didn't take too much of her time considering the meager belongings she possessed in this district, cleaned her district issued black boots and was about to start dusting the table when there was a knock.

"Soldier Trinket..."

"I'm not a soldier," she said, a phrase she had repeated countless times.

"Oh! I'm sorry," the boy stuttered. He was slightly out of breath from having to run through the corridors to get to her room. "Soldier Heavensbee sent me. He said that you're needed at the hospital and that they're all back."

The rag she was holding to dust the table earlier slipped from her fingers. It was as if the news had given her a burst of energy because her exhaustion vanished. Effie left the room in a hurry, only glancing back once when she remembered her manners.

"Thank you," Effie called out to the messenger.

XxX

Having been too preoccupied with the thought of losing Haymitch, Effie had not let herself imagine what it would be like to have him back and to finally meet him.

While she certainly did not expect the world to melt away, leaving only them like how it was for Annie and Finnick when they were reunited and especially since they had never talked about what they mean to each other, she was not expecting to find herself torn between wanting to find Haymitch in that chaotic hospital and going off with Katniss to meet Peeta.

Effie saw a woman being wheeled in, unconscious and with her head shaved. She was so badly bruised that Effie had difficulties recognising her.

"Is that..."

"Johanna Mason," Boggs confirmed as he approached her. "Haymitch is heavily sedated," he informed before she could ask. "Last I saw of him, he was being wheeled through that door. It will be a while before he wakes up from the double dose of gas and drug."

"Peeta's awake already and so is Annie. You didn't drug them."

"Peeta wasn't trying to fight us off. Haymitch was."

"Didn't you tell him where you were from?"

Unsure of how to break it to her, Boggs looked away briefly.

"Miss Trinket, when we found him, he was… None of them was in a good state but Haymitch seemed trapped in some kind of… I don't know exactly but he didn't seem _there_. We sedated them all so there was nothing much we could get out of any of them enroute."

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't believe I was from District Thirteen, tried to fight me off. I showed him your bracelet and it distracted him enough for us to sedate him and get him out."

"There's more… There's something else bothering you…"

"It's nothing. Nothing that would have any effect on Haymitch," Boggs gave her a tight-lipped smiled. "I was expecting the rescue to be much more difficult than that but… Like I said, it's nothing. Shall we? Katniss won't wait much longer."

Katniss led the way with Effie and Boggs following not far behind. Katniss' steps were quick and purposeful. When she opened the door, Peeta was sitting at the edge of the bed, his back turned towards them.

Katniss hurried in, raising her arms as she approached to pull him into a hug. A smile was slowly spreading across Effie's cheek to see Peeta alive and two see her two victors reunited, but just like that the smile vanished and those thoughts shattered.

Peeta was a threat to Katniss, and it didn't occur to anyone here that Katniss would need protection when she met him.

XxX

There was an increased in activity as the nurses and doctors descended on Katniss, making sure that the Mockingjay would live.

Effie stayed until Katniss finally closed her eyes, drowsy from the medications. When she left to find out where Haymitch was, she crossed paths with Finnick and Annie who told her that Haymitch was in withdrawal.

She worried too much about Haymitch being tortured for information that the most glaring problem slipped from her mind; he was an alcoholic detained in prison with no supply to alcohol.

"He will be glad to see you when he wakes up," Annie told her earnestly.

Fear rose in her chest as her feet took her closer to his room. He was alive, that much she knew but beyond that, Effie had no idea what to expect.

Was he beaten and sporting bruises like Johanna? Did they shave off his hair, too? Did they do something far worse than inflicting pain?

Haymitch lay on the hospital bed, unconscious and with tubes running into him. Having lost a tremendous amount of weight, something she noticed in Peeta, Annie and Johanna, he was a skeleton of his former self. He seemed to be in danger of being drowned and smothered by the white hospital blanket. His cheeks were hollow, his jaws angled sharply and his ribs were jutting out from the hospital gown.

His skin had a yellow hue to it and his face… Effie choked back a sob. His face was unrecognizable. One of his eyes was swollen shut and had turned a dark shade of purple, almost black. His cheekbone right below the ugly bruising was fractured. His lips had split and there were numerous cuts and abrasions on the skin of his face. His head was covered with a bandage, too.

 _Brain injury_.

That was what she was told. The injury was likely the result of trauma to the head which meant he had been tortured, as if the bruises and fracture on his face was not testament to that. Effie dropped into the chair, staring at Haymitch.

What had they done to him for him to come back to her so physically broken? What did he endure?

Effie pulled the blanket back slightly to slip her hand in hers, to let him know that she was there. She saw his hand wrapped in thick bandages.

The tears gathered in her eyes and she took a deep breath to control herself, to stop them from falling. If she were to start crying she didn't think she would be able to stop and she had been so strong all these while. Now wasn't the time to break down.

She placed her palm on his chest, fingers spread apart just to feel it rise and fall. He was alive under her touch. His heart was beating. He was alive and he was here. She could touch him; she could listen to his shallow breathing and she could talk to him.

"Miss Trinket?" a nurse called out to her softly. "I found this in Mr. Abernathy's pocket as I was about to discard his pants."

She handed Effie a crumpled piece of note. Effie nodded her thanks and once the nurse was gone, she smoothed out the paper to read the message written on it.

 _This isn't the end. See you for another drink, maybe, and a dose our hospitality – Fox._

The note puzzled her.

The only other person by the name of Fox that she knew was the Head Peacekeeper assigned to oversee the Capitol's security details. She strongly doubted Haymitch had or would ever brush shoulders with the Head Peacekeeper, let alone get drinks together. It made no sense to her.

Still, she kept the note safe for him, just in case.

Effie stayed by his side for hours, watching the rise and fall of his chest and listening to the sharp beeping of the heart rate monitor. She went over once to see Katniss when she roused and was told that there was no permanent damage to her spinal cord and larynx.

"That's good news, Katniss. Don't exert yourself, and make sure you listen to the nurses and doctors. This is not the time for you to be stubborn," Effie patted her arm. "Try not to talk either."

Katniss glared at Effie but she heeded the advice given to her. Instead of forcing herself to speak, she mouthed a name - Peeta.

Beetee used the word 'hijacking', a fairly new method devised by the Capitol and it was probable that it had been tested on Peeta as a subject. Effie listened quietly to it all as Beetee and Plutarch tried to explain to Katniss with what little that they knew about it.

 _Tracker jacker venom._

 _Fear conditioning._

 _Warping a person's memory to instigate fear._

 _Hallucinations._

 _Falsification of memories._

It sounded grotesque and horrible.

"That is all we know," Beetee concluded. "Annie has been quite helpful with her accounts of Peeta but we didn't dare to question her too far and to push her further. I will talk to her again and I'll need to find out more from Johanna and Haymitch when they're awake. It is important," Beetee said when Effie opened her mouth to protest, "that we know as much as we can about what was done to Peeta, and only those who were there with him could give us a history on it."

"Very well," Effie conceded. "I will let you know when Johanna and Haymitch are awake. Katniss, I'll come back again tonight, alright? Oh! It nearly slipped my mind. Plutarch, do you happen to know anyone by the name of Fox?"

"Sure, Peacekeeper Fox. Why the question?"

"This note was in Haymitch's pocket," Effie handed it to him.

"Annie mentioned someone by the name of Fox quite a lot when I spoke to her," Beetee added. "Could be the same person… Did some pretty terrible things to them according to her."

Boggs peered over Plutarch's shoulder to get a read and raised his head, looking at each of them in turn.

"It was a trap, a set up. I knew it was too easy," Boggs growled. "We met with no resistance _at all_. They must have known we were coming and left the place. It was deserted; no guards, no Peacekeepers. The prisoners... They were a gift."

"And before they left Fox slipped that note in Haymitch's pocket to what? Taunt us? Taunt _him?_ " Beetee frowned.

"Let's take this conversation outside," Plutarch steered them all out of the door.

"The Head Peacekeeper tortured them?" Effie asked once they were out of Katniss' hearing range. Her hands were shaking and it took all she had to control the tone of her voice. "He destroyed Peeta's mind, frightened Annie, broke Haymitch and hurt Johanna?"

Nobody answered that. Nobody needed to.

"At first, I thought Beetee's plan worked perfectly," Boggs continued, "except, I'm thinking now that they wanted Peeta to be found. A gift, like I said. You've seen for yourself how that boy nearly killed Katniss. That must have been their plan to send him back to District Thirteen with his mind hijacked so he could kill the Mockingjay. No Mockingjay, no war."

"Katniss was so afraid that Snow would give Peeta a fate worse than death, and it would seem that he did. The boy I knew would never hurt a hair on Katniss' head," Effie proclaimed.

The thought that President Snow had played them all and while doing so had used Peeta like a toy was too much to bear.

Beetee and Plutarch together with a team of doctors disappeared for a meeting with the sole intention of reversing the effects of the hijacking. Effie went back to Haymitch and sat vigil next to his bed.

"Haymitch..."

His name on her lips was just a quiet whisper. She took a breath, forming words and sentences, and things that she wanted to talk to him. There were too many things. In the end, she settled for something simple – a fact.

"You're in District Thirteen." She brushed the back of a finger against his cheek, on the side that was not fractured. "I know you are in pain and you are hurting but you are safe. Johanna, Annie and Peeta are safe, too. You shouldn't worry about them. We just need you to wake up and get better."

The hours ticked by and still, he remained unconscious and unaware until cold, bony fingers gripped her wrist and yanked hard. Effie, who had been nodding off was caught off guard and gave a little scream.

Haymitch flinched. He was only looking through one eye which was cloudy with medication and it stared straight through her.

"Haymitch?" she took a cautious step forward. "Oh, Haymitch, you're awake. You're … You startled me. I didn't mean to scream."

He didn't acknowledge her. He was staring at the walls and then suddenly he was scrambling, kicking the blanket in blind panic.

"Haymitch," Effie tried to calm him, "please, you'll only hurt yourself."

"What's that – What's that on the wall?"

His voice was hoarse, every syllable scraping against his throat.

 _He's afraid,_ her mind formed that conclusion. She had never seen Haymitch acting like this.

"There's nothing there," she tried to keep her voice neutral so as not to betray the panic rearing inside of her. "What's wrong? What's on the wall?"

"Can't you see it?" he snarled and then winced from the pain. He reached up to touch his cheek.

"Please, just calm down. I promise – No, don't!"

The nurse had already sedated him. She must have heard the commotion outside and came in.

"You shouldn't have done that," Effie rebuked.

"It's better this way. We won't know how he'll be while going through withdrawal. Here, all those going through rehabilitations stay in padded cells. He's lucky that because of his injuries the cells are out of the question so we must keep him under sedation. You don't know how he'll be. He might get violent. You should stay away."

"You call this lucky?" Effie gestured angrily. "You call being tortured lucky?"

The nurse stared at her.

"You will rue the day you were born if you ever think of moving him to those… those padded rehab cells of yours. Not under my watch. He will _not_ be in some kind of prison again."

"You refugees are extremely difficult to control. You should learn to assimilate into _our_ way of life and _our_ way of doing things. If he wakes up again, call me. I'll give him another dose."

After what just happened, Effie refused to leave the room now that there was something else to worry about. She guarded him and watched over him in case anyone had any ideas about moving him for rehabilitation in the condition that he was in. Effie spent long stretches of time next to his bed. Occasionally, Finnick and Annie would sit in to let her sleep or to let her visit Katniss and Peeta, and at times, Johanna. Annie would talk to Haymitch, whispering in his ear and urging him on.

"You're dead," Haymitch rasped.

He had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and at the sound of his voice, Effie sat up straighter. She strained her ears to pick out what he was saying, trying to discern if it was him mumbling something from his nightmare or if he was truly speaking to her.

"You're not real. This is – This is a nightmare," he opened his eyes. The swelling had gone down a little and she could see his eyes darting around the room, searching. "Where's Annie? Where's Johanna?"

"They're here in Thirteen, too."

"Thirteen? No. No. Not true. Destroyed. I saw. I saw it and you're not real. I shouldn't be talkin' to you. This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare," he repeated. "I got to wake up."

"Haymitch," she reached out to touch his cheek and he jerked away immediately. It stung to see him react in such a manner to her touch even though she knew he wasn't being himself at the moment. "I'm right here."

"What the fuck's this?" he stared at his hand, at the intravenous line and he paled. "Not like Peeta – don't do this. You can't do this to me."

"You know what they did to Peeta?" Effie tried.

He ignored her. He acted as if she wasn't there, as if she was a figment of his imagination and that as long as he did not acknowledge her or talk to her, she would disappear.

Haymitch started pulling the catheter out of his veins and threw the tube on the floor. He swung his legs over the bed, clearly intending to get up.

"Where are you going?" her voice rose in her panic. "You need to stay in bed! Stop, Haymitch, stop this."

No answer was forthcoming from him but Effie had a very good idea she knew what was bothering him. She planted herself in front of him with a hand on his chest to stop any further advancement.

"You are looking for Annie and Johanna. Am I right? Annie is with Finnick. She is safe, Haymitch. Johanna is in the hospital being treated, just like you. You're in a hospital in District Thirteen. You're in this room and Johanna is in another. Peeta, too. You are all in District Thirteen. You are all safe."

"Liar," he spat. "Thirteen was attacked. It was bombed like Twelve. It's not safe. It's _never_ safe. You ain't really here. You keep talkin' to me back there but I know you can't be Effie. You don't look right. You don't look right at all. She's dead, ain't she? Killed in the bombings… Fox has Annie and Johanna. I know that. Get me Annie. He never touches Annie. I can't let that change now. He's going to make me watch. I can't do it. I can't protect them all."

Effie inhaled sharply. It was painful listening to him talk. His thoughts were jumbled. Nothing he said made much sense. He was obviously confused.

He was…

 _Hallucinating,_ the word clicked in her mind.

Whenever he resurfaced from the depths of unconsciousness, he had kept insisting at time that the walls were closing in on him, that he was trapped and helpless, and he had reacted strongly each time.

"Haymitch, you are a very stubborn man. Stay in that bad and don't fight me on this," she ordered.

Haymitch blinked at the tone of her voice. He stopped trying to leave his bed and this time, he tried to focus his gaze on her. His eyes darkened as he tilted his head. He studied her for a long time, taking in everything about her.

"You sound like her," he muttered. Then he shook his head and leaned back on the bed. "It can't be. I'm going crazy, losing my mind."

"My name is Effie Trinket," she started. Perhaps, talking to him would help. "When you found out what my given name was, you spent days calling me by it, mocking me and taunting me. Euphemia this, Euphemia that. Do you remember?"

His brows furrowed together.

"I – I think so."

She pulled the blanket up and tucked it over him. She made sure there was a glass of water next to his bed, that the lights were not too bright in case it hurt his eyes.

"I am not dead, Haymitch. I am alive because you saved me."

She tried once more to connect with him - to rest a hand on his shoulder or squeeze his uninjured hand for comfort - but he moved away.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Effie sighed but she let her hand fall. _One step at a time._ "I will let you sleep but I will be right outside this door if you need me."

"I don't know what you are," he admitted just as she pressed the door handle.

 _What you are…_ _I don't know what you are._

Effie excused herself. She could feel his eyes following her out of the door and she glanced back, offering him a smile.

She demanded the presence of Plutarch, Beetee and the doctors treating Haymitch. There was only one thing that she wanted to know. Had he had been hijacked the way Peeta was?

They assured her that he hadn't, that there was no trace of the venom in his blood but the anxiety did not ebb away.

"He doesn't know me!" Effie hissed in distraught, showing the first signs of her armour cracking. "He should know _me_ of all people. He should – "

"It's the withdrawal, Effie, coupled with the head trauma," Beetee reached out and held her hand. "You need to give him time to sort out his thoughts. You heard what the doctors said. He's having difficulties differentiating between the things he saw in his nightmares, the terrors of his visual hallucinations and the reality of his situation. Haymitch is _not_ like Peeta. He will recover from this easily. Well, easier than Peeta. You need to keep talking to him. We need him back. It's - "

They heard something crash in his room and Effie rushed in before anyone could stop her. They found Haymitch on the floor, scratching at his skin.

"What are you doing?" she tried to stop him except he was quicker. He lashed out and she staggered back, unbalanced.

"Ants," he kept muttering. "All over. I can feel them on me."

"Remember what I told you about the walls? This is the same. It's not real. It's just … There's nothing there. It's just your thoughts," she tried to desperately to assure him but he kept scratching. "There are no ants."

"What's happening?" He raised his head. "Make it stop," he begged.

She couldn't watch him like this. She couldn't watch him suffer. She couldn't watch him tearing at his skin unable to tell the hallucinations from reality. She couldn't listen to him beg.

It was breaking her heart.

Effie glanced back at the doctor and maybe there was some wisdom in what the nurse had said earlier. She didn't know if that was for the best but Haymitch was suffering, and if she could stop it then she shouldn't deny him of it. He had gone through enough already.

Effie gave a curt nod and the doctor stepped into the room, syringe in hand.

"It's okay," Effie raised her hand and when he didn't move away, she cautiously rested it on the side of his neck. She could feel his pulse beating erratically. "It's okay. I'm here."

The needle pricked his skin and Haymitch went under.

"I'll see you again when you wake up," she kissed his brows.

* * *

 _Thirteen doesn't see a lot of alcoholics so I don't imagine they have a good system on how to properly give those going through withdrawals proper treatment. I imagine them placing those people who need rehab in a room and then leaving them be, or sedating them until the alcohol/drugs is out of the system. Who knows really._ _As I am writing Effie, I am the one who feel exhausted bc the poor woman is just running around from doing propos to visiting katniss and peeta and haymitch in turn, and worrying about everyone._

 _Now, i hope you're not disappointed by their 'reunion' and that you've enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review and share with me your thoughts/opinions!_

 _A/N: There will most likely not be an update next week because I'm going on a short trip and won't be in Singapore :)))))_


	15. Chapter 14

_This was supposed to be updated yesterday but I got stranded._

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

Haymitch woke up before he could die in his nightmare.

His chest rose and fell rapidly with each heavy breath that he took. His grey eyes darted around the room, pupils blown wide open.

He could still feel the pressure of the gun against his temple and Annie's shaking hand as she held it to his head under Fox's order.

Haymitch swallowed and ran a hand over his face, his palm coming off wet with perspiration. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a figure.

He frowned at the sight of her.

Why was she always here?

She had been telling him that he was safe, that Annie and Johanna were safe. She told him that Peeta was receiving the best care but he knew she was lying.

She had to be lying.

She came for him night after night with bloodied hands, demanding that he admit responsibility and that _he_ should shoulder the burden for _her_ death. She couldn't tell him that he was safe and that she wasn't going to hurt him when she made him feel otherwise each time he closed his eyes.

He didn't know what she was; if she was real or one of his nightmares. Her face kept morphing. At times, half of it was gone from the shrapnel wound but there were times when she stood in front of him, whole and solid.

Her head was wrapped in a piece of cloth, not the usual wig she often sported, but something entirely different. He had never seen her like this. He had, of course, searched his memories of a time when she did dress that way. That memory did not exist which meant, she couldn't be real.

He wanted to ask her to take it off but he worried about what he might find or what it was trying to hide. There could be horrors there that he did not want to confront. What if she showed him half of her head blown off? Or her scalp gone? Or her hair burnt from the bombing?

For a stressful minute, he watched her from where he was. She was asleep, curled on the arm chair and didn't seem at all threatening to him.

Haymitch swung his legs over the bed and stepped towards her. He gave her a light push. Still, she remained sleeping. He poked her again, roughly this time.

"See," her voice sliced through the silence, startling him. "You can touch me. I am very real, am I not?"

Annoyed that he was caught, he muttered an indiscernible _'go away'_ and retreated back to his bed.

"It's only six in the morning. Are you awake because you're in pain?"

"Shut up," he mumbled. "Just shut up."

"I'll have you know that's very rude of you," she pursed her lips.

He raised his head and stared. Each time she called him out on his manners, it left him feeling confused because when she did that, she sounded like the Effie he knew.

Giving his head a slight shake, he tore his gaze away and went back to the three-dimensional labyrinth Beetee had created for him. He needed to solve it and find a way out, and when he was done, he would then set the maze for Beetee to solve.

"Are you any closer to a way out?" she asked, peering at his board.

He huffed in irritation because he was in the habit of ignoring her at every turn and she was adamant on conversing with him at each given opportunity. He didn't want to talk to her, not when he couldn't tell with certainty if she was there with him or just a trick of his mind.

"Don't talk to her," he mumbled. "Don't talk to her. She's not real. You're imagining her. It's in your head – "

"If I'm not real then maybe that labyrinth isn't either. Maybe this hospital – "

"- just like the walls closing in on you. Just like the ants. Stop. Don't look at her."

"- is just another thing from your hallucination. Can't you see that -"

He froze. His entire body went rigid. He abandoned the labyrinth and walked over towards the wall, his hand feeling the surface.

"I've let my mouth run. Haymitch, I'm sorry," she stood in front of him, anguish and guilt written on her face. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I - I don't know what I was... I need to be more patient," she said but he thought it might be for her own benefit. "You're here. You're _really_ here. Beetee made that for you. I can confirm it."

She guided his hand to the wooden maze to let him touch it and he felt the wood a little rough under the pad of his thumb. He would have sandpapered it and made it smooth so nothing would splinter the fingers. He had been good at that - woodworking.

"I'm trying," he said, surprising himself at the admission, "to make sense of... to make sense."

Her gaze softened. It made him uncomfortable enough that he looked away. She was looking at him like she knew him, everything there was to know about him, when he wasn't even sure about her.

"I know you are," Effie nodded. "I know there are things that are more grounded to you than others. I just… I just want to know why it's more difficult for you to believe when it comes to me."

His brows furrowed together. "I wanted you to be real when I was in … In prison. Then I heard you died. They led me to believe you were dead in the bombing. I didn't want _that_ to be real but I kept picturin' it and -" he inhaled sharply." I don't want to fucking talk 'bout this."

"You thought about me often?" she asked, taking a step closer towards me. "Oh, Haymitch."

"I said I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, let's put that to rest for now. Can we talk about the IV?"

"No," he snapped. "I am not Peeta."

"You're right you're not but the nurses need to give you medication through it and they can't do that if you keep pulling and ripping it off. You're not eating either. You can't have solid food without being sick so you need the IV for – "

"I said no!" Haymitch snarled. "First you'll put the needle in me and then you're going to make me watch my Games. I've seen it before."

He didn't trust the people here. Effie and everyone else kept saying that he was in District Thirteen and he was slowly trying to wrap his head around the fact but he was wary. He was being cautious. It was self-preservation, especially when he already felt as helpless as he was. He refused to let them do to him as they pleased.

"It's not like -" Effie heaved a breath. "Haymitch, you're not in the Capitol anymore. You're not in prison. You are out of that horrible place."

He sneered.

It was easy for her to say when she wasn't the one haunted each night by images of Fox standing over him with his boot on his throat, having needles in his fingers and his nail slowly pulled out. His two fingers were still in pain and the nerve damage in one finger where the needle had went through made it bent awkwardly. He was the one who had to live with the crushing sense of being powerless and trapped, and unable to help those who depended on him.

Not her.

The prison in the Capitol was just another arena to him. He would never truly be free of that place no matter what Effie Trinket said.

"Please, Haymitch, let the doctors - "

The door opened with a loud bang. Johanna Mason walked in and glanced in her direction.

"Trinket," Johanna acknowledged her presence. "Having trouble?"

"Yes," Effie sighed.

His brows knitted together as he glared at the scene unfolding before him. Johanna had visited him before but they had not talked much. If he recalled, Annie had wheeled her in just to assure her that he was alive but he was under the influence of medication to properly hold a conversation with anyone at that time.

"You can see her?" he asked, jerking his head at Effie.

"Yeah, sure I can, harebrained. Wouldn't be talking to her if I can't see her," she rolled her eyes. "Annie told me you're having trouble telling the difference. You think I'm not real?"

"I don't know," Haymitch shrugged.

Johanna sat perched at the edge of his bed and raised her hand to touch the swell on his cheek. He flinched and moved his head away, glaring at her.

"Pain is real," Johanna told him. "Fox fractured your face, right? You know what helps with the pain? Morphling. So let them hook the damn IV on you, Haymitch. Help me out a bit, yeah?"

"Johanna!" Effie hissed. "That is really not the way to get him to agree. You shouldn't be out of bed. Where is Finnick? He is supposed to keep a look out for you."

"I don't need a guard," Johanna's lips curled into a sneer. "You're starting to sound like Annie. She tells me that each time I tried to leave."

"She knows what she is talking about and you would do well listen to her."

"Shut up, Trinket. You saw Peeta yet, Haymitch? He's a downright mess, I heard, tried to kill Katniss and all that. So... you know what we saw back in that room? Those were tracker jacker venom. Who'd have thought?"

"You saw Peeta?" Haymitch blinked slowly and tilted his head. "Fox has never let us see – "

"For fuck's sake, Haymitch, Trinket's been trying to tell you we're in Thirteen. Fox's not here and fucking good riddance, too."

"Katniss," his breathed. "If she's here, I should see her, talk to her."

"Perhaps later, Haymitch," Effie told him. "You will have time to explain to her what happened in the arena."

Johanna gave a derisive chuckle. "You all treat her like a fucking baby. Move, Trinket, let me have the sofa."

Clicking her tongue in disapproval at Johanna's behaviour, Effie stood up. He held his breath as he trained his eyes on her, watching where she would go. She glanced around and found no other chairs to sit on so she stood at the foot of his bed. He released a breath, partly relieved that he didn't have to be so close to her if she were to sit at the edge of his bed like Johanna had moments ago.

His mind was in state of confusion. As much as he wanted her and the fact that he was in Thirteen to be real, hope was still a dangerous thing, and he was careful with how much hope he allowed himself to have at the moment.

"Go do something else, Trinket. Baby Katniss why don't you? He's not going to change his mind about you today. Still can't believe you're not dead, right? You might as well go sit with your precious bird."

He witnessed the hesitation played across Effie's face, as if leaving him alone with Johanna was not something she wanted. It made him paused. He could trust Johanna though, couldn't he?

Haymitch gritted his teeth as memories of the prison resurfaced. _He_ had witnessed what Fox had done to Johanna. They had been through hell together. He had Johanna's back and she did too.

"I could use a break from you," he told Effie honestly, and Johanna gave a bark of laughter.

A small smile graced Effie's lips and she shook her head. "I am mildly surprised because _that_ did not sound mean or insulting like I expected it to be."

He shrugged.

"You're right. I should let you two spend some time together. I'll come back again tonight."

Haymitch waited until she had closed the doors before he turned to Johanna.

"Help me out here, if we're not in the Capitol, the only reason I can't get a drink here is 'cause Thirteen doesn't allow it not because Fox is playing Games with. I've been controllin' my drinking since the Quell started to prepare myself for Thirteen…."

"Yeah, ditto."

Haymitch nodded, satisfied that the fact checked out.

"You know what? We're not going to sit here and talk," Johanna announced. "Knowing Trinket and the nurses, they've been telling you to stay put. So get up, Haymitch, we're going for a walk. Nothing to help you tell the difference between Capitol and Thirteen then a walk around the district, am I right?" she snickered.

She had a point, he thought, so Haymitch rose to his feet as Johanna pointed to the door handle.

"Go on. This isn't an automatic, old man, it's not going to open itself," she waved her hand.

He grumbled under his breath but pressed the handle and pushed the door open.

"Will you look at that?" Johanna exclaimed in mocked surprised. "It fucking opens and you can even walk right out. Not like Fox would ever leave the door unlocked for us."

"Shut up, Jo," he muttered though it was good to know that her torture had not affected her snarky attitude.

This was the first time he was out of his hospital room. He took in his surroundings; the nurses at their terminals and stations, the nurses standing over their patients, a man in a wheelchair rolling past him and a few teenagers in school shadowing a nurse as they learn.

"Prim?" Haymitch called out.

The girl turned and her face split into a smile.

"Haymitch!"

She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. It took him by surprise and he patted her back awkwardly.

"You made it out," he said. "The fire in Twelve … How? Who else survived? Were there others?"

"Mum and the Hawthornes are here, and a few hundreds of us from home. When the Capitol came, Gale took us to the woods to hide. Thirteen sent their hovercrafts for us after that to bring us here. The others... They didn't make it."

"Peeta's family?"

Prim shook her head and then changed the subject. "How are you doing?"

"Better," he shrugged. "What are you doing in the hospital? Are you here for Katniss?"

"I'm training to be a doctor," she told him proudly.

"So you're the famous Prim, huh?" Johanna studied her. "Heard a lot about you."

Prim smiled but the meeting was cut short when she was called back to join the rest of her small class.

It was a struggle, he thought, to piece it all back together and draw a line between events. _This_ \- talking to Primrose, watching her learn and witnessing the scenes in the hospital - could not be something that his mind conjured up. _Except_ , a small voice nagged, his mind had came up with vivid and terrible things before.

"How long have we been here?" he asked. "You remember getting here? I - I thought someone had given me..."

His gaze fell on his wrist, at the gold glinting under the light. Someone had mentioned Effie's name...

"I was knocked out when the rescue happened. You'd think they'd come and get us sooner but they were waiting for your girl to break. Word was Katniss lost it. Your escort and the other victors pushed for the rescue. Guess you're right after all, Trinket's got her uses."

"Haymitch! Is that really you?"

He turned at the sound of a familiar voice and soon had his arm around a petite young woman.

"I'm so glad to see you up and walking. Each time I visited with Finnick, you were either asleep or sedated. You must be feeling better or," she narrowed her eyes at Johanna, "Johanna dragged you out of bed."

"I'm doing him some good," Johanna shot back.

"Annie," Haymitch gave a genuine smile before pulling back from the hug to look at her properly.

Like Johanna, she was still skinny. The hospital gown hung off her but there was a sparkle in her eyes that was missing in prison. Behind her, Finnick stood tall, grinning at Haymitch.

"You missed me?" Finnick winked.

The light-hearted banter was familiar. It worked in making him feel a little relaxed. He clasped Finnick's shoulder but the young man would have none of that and pulled him into a hug.

"Good to have you back, Haymitch."

XxX

After his experience that afternoon, he was ready to allow himself to believe that Thirteen had really rescued them. He had not seen a single Peacekeeper here and he had counted eight hours and forty three minutes without a visit or a beating from Fox.

 _Fox is not here. He ain't coming for you._ _This is District Thirteen. The revolution is underway._

Outside of his room, the hospital was quiet, broken only by the occasional low murmur of the nurses as they passed which meant that Haymitch heard her footsteps long before she entered his room.

"Oh, I thought you'd be asleep."

She sounded surprise to see him half siting on his bed. He was waiting for her. She told him she would be back so he waited.

"You gave this to me," he stated, raising his hand to show the gold bangle on his wrist.

Effie stepped closer. "I did, yes."

"The first time was the Penthouse," he told her confidently, "and then I gave it to Finnick for the Games. You... Someone gave this to me in prison."

"It was Soldier Boggs. He agreed to take it with him," Effie explained.

"I thought it was taken from you," he told her. "I thought you were dead and they had taken it from you. I thought it was being used against me... to make me..."

"No, Haymitch, it wasn't like that at all. I gave it to Boggs in case... I wanted to be there during the rescue so that you and the others will have a familiar face... So that you'll go with us easily but President Coin wouldn't allow it. I needed a substitute. I didn't know it would cause you such distress. I'm sorry. "

"Those things did happen – you giving me the bangle, me giving it to Finnick and then the prison…" he muttered to himself and slowly, he said, "You're here with me."

"Yes, yes," Effie smiled, her lips stretching to reach her eyes and he thought she might cry.

He shifted in his bed, uncomfortable but to her credit, she didn't.

"Why do you look so different?" he frowned taking in the grey clothes. Effie Trinket was always decked in colours. "Are you wearing Finnick's clothes? I saw Finnick in it."

"If that's the case, it would seem that I have picked up a habit of wearing Plutarch's and Beetee's clothes. You have seen them in it too, haven't you?"

His eyes flashed and his fingers curled over the bed sheet.

"It's a uniform. You wouldn't believe it, Haymitch," she huffed, "but when we arrived, we were given uniform and it was absolutely dreadful. They want everyone dressed the same way - how preposterous - but I am resourceful. Why, of course, I am, so I had to do something. I made it better."

Haymitch sat there, staring at her as she turned around, showing her back to him. She had sown two blouses together.

Everything that just came out of her mouth and the fact that she modified a plain looking uniform to make it fashionable while she was in the middle of a war was ridiculous but it was so...

 _Effie._

 _That's Effie right there._

He swallowed and the words came easily to him as if he had done it a thousand times before.

"Still ugly," he commented.

It made her laugh. It made her lips curled upwards and the corners of her eyes to crinkle.

"I thought you might say something like that. I would be very worried if you didn't insult my wardrobe and let me tell you, I have more than enough things on hand to worry about."

Haymitch snorted, letting his eyes travelled up and then he pointed, "That thing on your head?"

"I couldn't very well be walking around this place with nothing to cover my hair. How terrible…"

"Take it off," he requested. "I want to see you."

Just like she had done when Johanna told her to leave, Effie hesitated. He was certain she would refuse him. Instead, she took a step closer and perched herself on the side of his bed. The bed dipped and his fingers that were inches away from her thigh twitched. He could feel her warmth and there was no way he could possibly be hallucinating _that_.

"Would you like to do it? That way -"

"- I'll know you're here," he finished the sentence and she hummed in agreement.

His mouth was dry and he swallowed forcefully. He had done this before. He had taken off her wigs before. This was no different. It shouldn't be any different but somehow, to him, it bore a heavier consequence.

He needed everything to be true; conversing with her, seeing her asleep on the armchair, waking up in a hospital to see her in the room most of the time. If this was all a dream and he was still in prison under Fox's control, he didn't know if had it in him to continue fighting.

His hand rose and it hovered inches from the knot. He watched her just as she was watching him. Effie made no move to assist or guide him. She was letting him set the pace and be in control. She was showing him that she trusted him.

"Was Thirteen bombed?"

"It was. We were bombed for days," Effie answered. "But Peeta saved us all. His warning helped everyone to be evacuated in time. Everyone here... They owed him their lives, Haymitch. What did they do to him for that warning? We saw blood before the cameras were -"

The memory resurfaced in his mind - him watching the interview, Peeta crying out a warning and getting beaten, them being forced down on the floor by Peacekeepers. Haymitch gritted his teeth and forced the images away.

Instead of answering her question, he asked, breaths trembling, "Were you hurt?"

His face was impassive even if the tremors which made his hands unsteady annoyed him. His fingers trembled as he fumbled with the knot on Effie's scarf. Still, Effie's hand remained firmly in her lap and with it, his ego intact.

"I wasn't," she assured him. "I was just terrified that I would die buried underground."

"But you didn't," a question and a statement rolled into one.

"I didn't," Effie confirmed with a smile. "I'm here."

"Okay."

"Did they – Did they tell you I was dead, Haymitch? Was that why you believed so firmly that - "

His finger gave a little tug and the knot came undone. Her hand immediately flew to her head to hold the cloth in place, her fingers brushing against his. He resisted the urge to pull his hand away. Her smile was sheepish when she let her hand fall back to her lap.

"I heard the planes flew out from where I was held. I saw the bombings from a live feed on the plane's camera. I heard news of the destruction. After the arena exploded, they made me watched Twelve burnt and I - I confused the two... To me, the extent of the destruction in Twelve and Thirteen was the same. They were drying me out, I was delirious and... I couldn't think well..." he trailed off.

Gently, he pulled the cloth away and spread it out before him. His eyes narrowed.

"It's a map," he noted, studying the schematic and clusters.

"It is," she nodded, "a map of District Thirteen. It's supposed to help you find your way through the maze of hallways here."

"I was tortured over a map," he told her and raised the bandaged hand. "Got this because of it. Did you know what he did to my fingers, sweetheart?"

"Who, Haymitch? Who hurt you?"

"Fox."

He raised his head just then and stared at her. He blinked slowly, his eyes darting all over her face at the sight of her blonde hair now free from its restraint. In a semi-unconscious act, Haymitch brushed a finger against her hair and curled a lock around it.

"You came to me every night," he told her. "You look horrible."

Effie bit her lip. Something jolted in him when he realized that she misunderstood him.

"No, no," he growled, frustrated with himself. "In – In the nightmares… You look terrible in them. Your face was -"

He broke off, not wanting to describe the Effie that haunted him. Leaning forward slightly, he brought a lock of hair up to his nose and gave it a sniff.

"You smell different."

"I would imagine so with the cheap soap and cheap shampoo. I know we're in a war and I am lucky to be alive as it is, but I do miss certain luxuries. Shampoo, conditioner... Coffee!"

He chuckled. "No coffee?"

"No!"

"No alcohol either. Fair's fair," he grinned only to end up wincing in pain.

"Try not to hurt your cheek," she patted his knee.

Haymitch trailed his hand down to her cheek and to the side of her neck. He felt her warm breath against his skin and the soft beating of her pulse where he had rested his thumb.

The words passed his lips, sure and steady, and relieved all at once.

"You're alive."


End file.
